By taking in $155.34 million in it’s first three days, The Dark Knight has officially broken the record for biggest opening day weekend in movie history, beating Spider-Man 3 by $4 million. Duh. FOX News reports:
We knew it would be big, but we never expected to dominate the marketplace like we did,” said Dan Fellman, head of distribution for Warner Bros., which released “The Dark Knight.” The movie should shoot past the $200 million mark by the end of the week, he said….The movie’s release was preceded by months of buzz and speculation over the performance of the late Heath Ledger as the Joker, Batman’s nemesis. Ledger, who died in January from an accidental prescription-drug overdose, played the Joker as a demonic presence, his performance prompting predictions that the role might earn him a posthumous Academy Award nomination. “The average opening gross of the last five `Batman’ movies is $47 million. This tripled that, and for a reason,” said Paul Dergarabedian, president of Media By Numbers. “A big part of that was the Heath Ledger mystique and a phenomenal performance that absolutely deserves the excitement surrounding it.”
Although I wouldn’t go so far to call The Dark Knight a masterpiece, it was amazingly awesome and all the hype about Heath Ledger’s performance wasn’t hype. He was fucking great. If Heath’s performance was a girl, I’d try to throw it in the backseat and get it pregnant. So, it’s really no surprise that the movie is expected to break $200 million by the end of the week. Making in hot on the heels of Meet Dave, which is expected to break $200 million by the year 2057.
