"The Dark Knight Rises" Has $160 Million Opening Weekend

[CBR News]

Christopher Nolan's "The Dark Knight Rises" finishes its opening weekend below initial estimates, earning a respectable $160 million box office gross, but not enough to dethrone the record-breaking weekend of "The Avengers."


Full article here.

[BrotherUnitNo_4]

I imagine the shootings may have had some effect.

[0bsessions]

I imagine the shootings may have had some effect.

This is what my wife suggested, but I'm not so sure. I mean, overall Friday gross was still huge (Even with the shootings occurring Thursday night), the dropoff was massive Saturday and Sunday.

I know a lot of those tickets were presales, but I'm not entirely sure potentially wasting $30 whole dollars is going to keep people from ditching if they think they're going to get shot.

[Flinkman]

honestly, and I mean this with absolutely NO disrespect to the tragedy in Aurora, using the shootings as a crutch to justify the lower-than-expected box office is kind of a weak argument. pre-sales for this thing had been hyped to death, with many theaters sold out through Friday and several showings on Saturday. Regardless of whether or not these people decided to physically GO to the theater to see the film is irrelevant; those pre-sales count towards the total.

I suppose an argument could be made that people who didn't already have tickets didn't go out of fear, but pulling the ads likely did not contribute to the lower turnout...everyone and their brother knew this movie was out last weekend.

[Greengo]

I imagine the shootings may have had some effect.

Some maybe, the most effect it had was people were talking about it in the lineups and EVERYBODY was talking about the movie and the shooting. It did, no doubt, have a huge effect on that one theatre.

This article wants to point to the more aggressive estimates of 198 million as the "norm", but most of the estimates I saw were saying it would be lucky to hit that number, the more realistic estimates did have it at around 170 -180 million.

The movie does have good buzz, but most I talked to enjoyed the Dark Night better. Of course that's just in my circles.

This is almost similar to the Dark Knight and trying to figure out how much the death of Heath Ledger lead to its crazy opening weekend.

With all due respect to the victims, this is a big opening weekend of 160 plus million and there may have been some effect, but I believe it's not the reason it didn't hit the aggressive 198 million, I don't think it was ever going to hit that.

[BrotherUnitNo_4]

Well I can't fault them for estimating $198 million especially when the box office take of TDK. Plus it was the final film in Nolan's Batman epic. When I looked at tickets for purchase TDKR had about 20 showings, not including IMAX screens.

[Hiromi]

This is what my wife suggested, but I'm not so sure. I mean, overall Friday gross was still huge (Even with the shootings occurring Thursday night), the dropoff was massive Saturday and Sunday.

I know a lot of those tickets were presales, but I'm not entirely sure potentially wasting $30 whole dollars is going to keep people from ditching if they think they're going to get shot.

The firday midnight opening counted towards Friday's total gross, if you take that away it was pretty close to the rest of the weekend.

[verslibre]

This is what my wife suggested, but I'm not so sure. I mean, overall Friday gross was still huge (Even with the shootings occurring Thursday night), the dropoff was massive Saturday and Sunday.

honestly, and I mean this with absolutely NO disrespect to the tragedy in Aurora, using the shootings as a crutch to justify the lower-than-expected box office is kind of a weak argument.

It's not a crutch. People aren't avoiding the movie permanently. People who had planned to see it opening weekend put it off till this week or weekend. Look what MSN Movies has to say with regard with overall box office sales this last weekend:

The final film in Christopher Nolan's Batman trilogy had been expected to challenge Disney and Marvel's "The Avengers," which bowed to $207 million in May, for the biggest opening weekend ever.

"The Dark Knight Rises" grosses came from 4,404 screens in the U.S. and Canada. That's the second-largest domestic rollout ever and includes a record 332 Imax screens.

The entire box office appears to be off.

Last week's No. 1 film, Fox's "Ice Age: Continental Drift," fell 56 percent to $20.4 million. Sony's "The Amazing Spider-Man," which made $34.6 million last week, dropped to $10.8 million, a 68 percent drop. Universal's "Ted" was down 55 percent, to $10 million, and its "Savages" fell 64 percent, to $3.3 million.

[PreacherCain]

The fact that it's not in over-priced 3D probably had a significant effect on box office.

[DonC]

honestly, and I mean this with absolutely NO disrespect to the tragedy in Aurora, using the shootings as a crutch to justify the lower-than-expected box office is kind of a weak argument. pre-sales for this thing had been hyped to death, with many theaters sold out through Friday and several showings on Saturday. Regardless of whether or not these people decided to physically GO to the theater to see the film is irrelevant; those pre-sales count towards the total.

I suppose an argument could be made that people who didn't already have tickets didn't go out of fear, but pulling the ads likely did not contribute to the lower turnout...everyone and their brother knew this movie was out last weekend.

Dark Knight Rises is the #1 2-D opening of all time.

[Sighphi]

If there were cops all over the place and you cant dress up im sure some folks werent into it. Let's see how it does next week, let's see if it looses a lot or little.

[Alex]

If there were cops all over the place and you cant dress up im sure some folks werent into it. Let's see how it does next week, let's see if it looses a lot or little.

When i went there was just a little sign that said you couldn't bring large bags in.
Didn't see any cops at least.

[An Ear In The Fireplace]

I had planned to go on Friday, but after the news of the shootings I didn't feel in the right mood to go to the theatre. When I see this movie, I want to see it with the right attitude--not while I'm still processing such a shocking crime.

Frankly I find CBR coverage of all this a little off. It's like the reporting is being done by robots and not human beings sensitive to the genuine emotion of the moment.

[Greengo]

It's not a crutch. People aren't avoiding the movie permanently. People who had planned to see it opening weekend put it off till this week or weekend. Look what MSN Movies has to say with regard with overall box office sales this last weekend:

Actually Deadline reports the opposite.

"In fact the entire moviegoing weekend should be up around +35% over last year, demonstrating the resilience of the public and their love for watching films in the shared experience of a movie theatre."

As said above, as far as 2D it's a new record, mind you it's a huge release for a 2D only film (second only to the Dark Knight) but on more screens. I guess this shows how really these number games are really hard to compare per movie with 2D/3D/IMAX/theatre count/screens per theatre count, etc etc.

Also, I discuss this all with respect to the victims in the shooting, but strictly talking about the box office, agree with others that don't believe the effect was that big. There were still lineups throughout North America.

[cactusmaac]

It sounds indecent to say this, but if you're a foreigner, people getting shot by crazed gunmen in America doesn't come across as a huge shock.