As The Dark Knight approaches Titanic on the all-time box office list, let’s reflect how it reached such lofty heights. The number one film at the box office ever since its release (the past four weeks), The Dark Knight represents some superior filmmaking that actually lived up to the hype. Whether you love or loath Batman’s raspy voice or Heath Ledger’s performance as the Joker, The Dark Knight creates some very memorable moments.
The well-timed building explosion, Bruce Wayne “accidentally” saving a disloyal employee, and the Joker’s twisting strategy culminating in a rotating upside shot near the end all represent outstanding continuity where every element presented gets some form of resolution. The quiet, yet high-stressed strings in the musical score during tense moments enhance the film even further.
Director Christopher Nolan (The Prestige, Memento), who also co-wrote the screenplay with his brother Jonathan, weaves all these elements to create the aura of an epic play disguised as a superhero blockbuster. Nolan even keeps his crew intact including cinematographer Wally Pfister and editor Lee Smith, both worked on Batman Begins.
It’s a great film, but maybe you don’t think too much of the well-publicized box-office numbers where Titanic stands at just over $600 million as the U.S. box office champion. The current tally of approximately $448 million seems like a lot, but Hollywood’s exaggerated view of the box-office numbers gets put into a different perspective when inflation comes into play.
As of last weekend, The Dark Knight had only recently surpassed the total of the first Batman film when inflation is factored in (according to the Web site Box Office Mojo). Factor in the international tallies and the numbers spin even further. Iron Man and Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull have already staked their home video claims, September 30th and October 14th, respectively.
Article comments
1 - El Bicho
If you don't factor in the inflation of ticket prices, this whole idea is rather silly. TDK would need to take in over $900 million, and then so what because there's five movies ahead of Titanic on the list. Here's the adjusted grosses:
1 Gone with the Wind $1,430,476,000
2 Star Wars $1,261,086,700
3 The Sound of Music $1,008,300,900
4 E.T. $1,004,328,700
5 The Ten Command... $927,480,000
6 Titanic $908,688,900
48 The Dark Knight $445,370,700
2 - abet
those figures of the top 6 are astronomical. Are they real? Especially Gone With The Wind. I just can't fathom how an era that obviously had smaller population, lesser screens, and probably less far reaching marketing could have sold a couple of hundred million tickets. And if my history is right, wasn't it also the period of the great depression? Help me out here coz those figures beat me flat out.
3 - Phillip Winn
Abet, Gone with the Wind was released in 1939, so economic recovery was well underway.
Also, BoxOfficeMojo includes theatrical re-releases in its totals, and Gone with the Wind has had three releases total, though most of the money earned comes from the original release: $189,523,031. I know Star Wars has been in theaters three times, which is why it's #2, though it obviously did remarkably well in 1977, too. ($307,263,857)
BoxOfficeMojo actually knows how many tickets were sold to Gone with the Wind, and bases the revenue numbers on that, but doesn't release that statistic, at least for non-members.
4 - Joshua Rojas
I don't know about you guys, but the only movie that is even close to being as good as the dark knight is would have to be Star Wars. That's it.
5 - Jordan Richardson
Joshua, see more movies. That's it.