MovieTickets.com says that, four days prior to its release, Warner Bros’ Batman: The Dark Knight has sold out 700 performances in North America and is outselling 3 of MovieTickets.com’s Top 10 Performing Films of All-Time. To date, the pic has more than 3-times as many advance tickets as Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest, more than 2-times as many as Spider-Man 3 and almost 2-times as many as Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers at the same point in the sales cycle. This fuels predictions that the latest Batman 152-minute pic can make $130+ million in domestic gross for the upcoming 3-day weekend opening because of round-the-clock showings.
In a recent MovieTickets.com survey, moviegoers aware of The Dark Knight expressed “wannasee” during its opening weekend in all four age groups polled: 24 & Under – 98%, 25 to 34 – 92%, 35 to 44 – 78%, 45 to 59 – 66%. In addition, the survey found that 86% of males and 76% of females polled said they intend to see it during its opening weekend.
Meanwhile Fandango (which sells tickets to more than 15,000 theater screens) reports that Warner Bros’ The Dark Knight has grabbed a whopping 90% of all ticket sales for the upcoming weekend show. That’s incredible considering it was still only Tuesday. COO Rick Butler claims fan anticipation is the highest since Star Wars Episode III: Revenge Of The Sith. “Moviegoer curiosity about the late Heath Ledger’s performance as The Joker is helping fuel additional ticket sales, outside of the traditional action movie and Batman fan base.”
And Comcast just released 6 exclusive videos of The Dark Knight it claims can;t be found anywhere else, as well as a new videogame based on the pic. Plus, let’s not forget the onslaught of tie-in products…
It’s understandable even if ridiculous that Warner Bros keeps trying to lower everyone’s expectations for this behemoth blockbuster of a Batman Begins sequel. My sources at the studio keep insisting that Dark Knight will “only” make $90 million to $100 million for its opening 3-day weekend. I can’t believe they’re seriously suggesting that Dark Knight will make less than Iron Man.
But the WB insiders point to all the increased competition at the megaplex now as opposed to the beginning of May. Whereas my box office gurus are predicting domestic gross as high as $130M for the wildly anticipated Christopher Nolan/Christian Bale film because of all those record-breaking early ticket sales at North American runs, including IMAX. That would put it 3rd in terms of all-time opening 3-day weekends — behind Spider-Man 3 ($151.1M on May 4-6, 2007)and Pirates Of The Caribbean 2: Dead Man’s Chest ($131.6M on July 7, 2006). One worry mitigating the Heath Ledger fanboy factor which Hollywood has mentioned is that the pic’s 2 hour and 32 minute running time will limit showings. But that isn’t an issue anymore since many theater managers/owners plan round-the-clock screenings during its midnight July 18 mega-debut.
source:Â drudgereport.com
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