Post by Admin on Mar 15, 2017 22:24:01 GMT
The story of TDK's opening weekend success:
www.nytimes.com/2008/07/21/movies/21batm.html
Fevered fans pushed “The Dark Knight,” the sixth of the Warner Brothers series of “Batman” movies, to record three-day ticket sales of $155.3 million over the weekend, shoring up what so far had been a wobbly year at the box office.
By Warner’s estimate the film narrowly eclipsed opening-weekend ticket sales last year of $151.1 million for Sony Pictures’ “Spider-Man 3,” the previous record holder.
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“It just took on a life of its own,” said Dan Fellman, Warner’s president for theatrical distribution. “You never expect anything like this.”
Excitement around “The Dark Knight” began to build sharply weeks ago, much of it fed by anticipation of the performance as the Joker by Heath Ledger, who died in January.
Theaters began adding midnight and then early-morning screenings of the film as fans scooped up advance tickets online. At sellout shows around the country, audiences — including more than a few viewers who came made up to resemble Mr. Ledger’s evil clown character — pushed Friday ticket sales to an estimated $66.4 million, including an extraordinary $18.5 million from the midnight showings.
That the film’s opening took on an event status that previous “Batman” movies never quite achieved apparently owed something to its strong presence in Imax format.
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Imax screenings contributed $6.2 million to the “Dark Knight” box office, beating the previous Imax record, $4.7 million for “Spider-Man 3,” by more than 30 percent, said Greg Foster, the president of filmed entertainment for Imax.
www.nytimes.com/2008/07/21/movies/21batm.html
Fevered fans pushed “The Dark Knight,” the sixth of the Warner Brothers series of “Batman” movies, to record three-day ticket sales of $155.3 million over the weekend, shoring up what so far had been a wobbly year at the box office.
By Warner’s estimate the film narrowly eclipsed opening-weekend ticket sales last year of $151.1 million for Sony Pictures’ “Spider-Man 3,” the previous record holder.
---
“It just took on a life of its own,” said Dan Fellman, Warner’s president for theatrical distribution. “You never expect anything like this.”
Excitement around “The Dark Knight” began to build sharply weeks ago, much of it fed by anticipation of the performance as the Joker by Heath Ledger, who died in January.
Theaters began adding midnight and then early-morning screenings of the film as fans scooped up advance tickets online. At sellout shows around the country, audiences — including more than a few viewers who came made up to resemble Mr. Ledger’s evil clown character — pushed Friday ticket sales to an estimated $66.4 million, including an extraordinary $18.5 million from the midnight showings.
That the film’s opening took on an event status that previous “Batman” movies never quite achieved apparently owed something to its strong presence in Imax format.
---
Imax screenings contributed $6.2 million to the “Dark Knight” box office, beating the previous Imax record, $4.7 million for “Spider-Man 3,” by more than 30 percent, said Greg Foster, the president of filmed entertainment for Imax.