Batman breaks Spider-Man record at box office

Reuters ^ | Sun Jul 20, 2008 11:07pm EDT | By Dean Goodman

[Perdogg]

KAPOW! The new Batman movie "The Dark Knight" smashed the weekend record set by "Spider-Man 3" last year, selling an estimated $155.3 million worth of tickets during its first three days of release across the United States and Canada, distributor Warner Bros. Pictures said on Sunday.

The hotly anticipated film, co-starring late actor Heath Ledger as the anarchic Joker, surpassed the $151.1 million haul for "Spider-Man 3" during its first weekend in May 2007.

[Virginia Ridgerunner]

The author of this article is completely ignorant about the Batman comic and its characters. In his original incarnation, Bob Kane's Batman was a violent vigilante who often left the criminals he caught permanently crippled. The Joker, meanwhile, was based upon the protaganist in Victor Hugo's dark story The Man Who Laughs, and has always been a maniacal mass murderer and terrorist. Nolan is just getting back to the original source material, as did Frank Miller in the 1980s.

[HamiltonJay]

Whoops, that should read BATMAN BEGINS.. NOT batman returns was a joke of a movie....

[wbill]

"Why so serious?"

Man, there were some scenes in the flick where I winced and said "Gaaa! Can't believe that they did that....."

Previous poster was right, this was not a PG-13 movie. (I didn't know that it was...just assumed an R rating) Very, very violent.

[commonguymd]

touche

[HamiltonJay]

[CSM]

I track the movie results every monday and laugh at the news reports as they go froma “gas crisis” story directly to a “top movie openings” story on Monday morning news shows. They just don’t get the irony of their own reporting and it gives me a good laugh daily.

I really had a hardy laugh at this lady in my local watering hole. She was playing the “keno” and dropping $20 at a time. That amount was lasting her about 15 minutes and she had been playing for about an hour when I got her talking about gas prices. I steered her into some heavy complaining about it and finally I said, “yeah, I wish Bush would just steal that Iraqi oil so that I could finally afford to throw my money down a keno hole too!”

She just looked at me with a blank stare on her face. Then again, I do reside in a liberal safe haven here in SE MI.

(Sorry for hijacking this thread....)

[Kimmers]

My husband and I see very few movies and usually wait for the rental. There are some we feel need to be seen on the big screen and this is one of them. We usually go to a later night movie during the week...less crowd and crowd noise

I loved the first Batman in this series and am really looking forward to this one.

We hope to see it in a DLP theater.

[wbill]

I thought that this was better than the 1st one. Not as cheesy, but definitely more violent. Wasn't kidding about the 'R' rating, I'm amazed that it didn't get one.

Make sure you hit the rest room before the movie though, it's about 2-1/2 hours long. :-)

[Bear_in_RoseBear]

Saw "Dark Knight" on Saturday, and enjoyed it. But, I wasn't enamored of Heath Ledger's portrayal of The Joker. Psychopathic, yes, murderous, yes, but not manic enough for me. I was impressed with the portrayal of Harvey Dent, though, I think they got that one just right.

What really blew me away was the trailer for "Watchmen" that played before the movie. WOW! Almost every image in the trailer is taken directly from the comic. If Zack Snyder (the director) can do as well keeping the story line intact, then that will be a movie I will go and see again and again.

[chickadee]

It would seem that some illustrated novel fans are aware of these dark origins in the Batman saga. Batman was thoroughly sanitized in its TV incarnation with Adam West. The general public doesn’t have the knowledge you apparently do. I was glad to see the review I posted and to ask that my young grandchildren not be exposed to the kind of moral equivalency shown in this film.

Perhaps the rating should be changed to R. There are things more dangerous than nudity and violence to the young teenage mind.

[Havok]

Saw it twice this weekend.
The second time around the plot becomes much clearer. Easily the best TRUE to character superhero movie to date. Still they are miss showing how smart Bruce Wayne really is, just like They missed Peter Parker’s brains in the Spidey movies.
I don’t think it shows any Nihilism at all. Batman does what is RIGHT through the whole thing. He is undoubtedly good while the Joker is purely evil. I would suggest seeing the movie instead of reading articles by some clown and making your judgment second-hand.
If anything it shows that we should keep doing good even if its unpopular. (IE today’s society in the US)

[chickadee]

I'm glad you enjoyed it, but it wasn't just one review - the "cool" crowd is reveling in the way "good" is pulled down to the level of "evil" - now if that isn't nihilism, what is? Dark Knight, Rolling Stone Mag

[SnakeDoctor]

The Dark Knight was a truly great movie. If Ledger doesn’t get an Oscar, it will be a travesty of justice. Ledger’s “Joker” should go down as the best superhero villain in movie history — possibly matched only by Terrence Stamp’s “General Zod” of Superman II. Kevin Spacey’s “Lex Luthor”, Alfred Molina’s “Doc Ock”, and Nicholson’s “Joker” would probably round out the top 5, but lag far behind those two.

Not only that, but I’d place Ledger’s Joker among some of the greatest characters in ALL movies, not just the superhero genre. Ledger managed to pull off truly sadistic and somewhat amusing simultaneously. A great character. I cannot recommend this movie highly enough.

The movie was dark — Ledger was quite creepy — but, other than Harvey Dent’s fire-damaged face, is was not particularly graphic. Not for kids, but pre-teens and teens should be fine.

I am thrilled that someone has finally gotten Batman right.

A+

H

[Varda]

Thanks for that link. My son saw this movie and liked it. The reviews I’ve seen (such as the one you posted) are disturbing which means I’ll go see this so I can discuss it. It seems much of the entertainment and world view aimed at young adults is nihilistic and therefore they latch onto this familiar theme when they see it.

If the reviews are correct not only is the Joker a pure demonstration of Nihilism but the “hero” response of telling a lie for the greater good is as well. Perhaps these reviews are wrong, I’ll find out for myself.

[SnakeDoctor]

>> it wasn’t just one review - the “cool” crowd is reveling in the way “good” is pulled down to the level of “evil” - now if that isn’t nihilism, what is?

I’m not sure its any more nihilistic than Jack Bauer in 24. He does what is necessary. Batman doesn’t kill — but he isn’t a lighthearted idealistic character. He is ultimately driven to combat crime to avenge the murder of his parents.

But, ultimately, the Dark Knight is a movie showing the differences b/w good and evil ... and, even with a darker hero, there are obvious differences. There are lessons that can be learned from such a movie. Batman isn’t an idealistic hero like Superman or Luke Skywalker — he’s more like a Han Solo or Jack Bauer. Lessons can be learned from both.

H

[chickadee]

Thanks - I appreciate your thoughtful response.

c

[Virginia Ridgerunner]

Batman was thoroughly sanitized in its TV incarnation with Adam West.

And therein lies the problem, particularly with the media's coverage of the new film, since the reporters can't resist using the cheezy "Bam! Pow! Crash!" or "Holy Bat Freak!" exclamations of the Adam West Batman show to open their pieces about the current movie. This tends to lead the uniformed movie-goer into beleiving that Nolan's Batman is just another offshoot of West's Batman, which it is not.

[boogerbear]

I’m 39 and I loved every minute of it. It was pretty simple to understand: Joker bad, Joker nuts, Joker smarter than cops, Joker not smarter than Batman but smarter and more vicious than Batman expected.

[Ditter]

Thanks for the re cap. My husband is 73 and I am 68, you are younger than our son. I am glad my dinner didn’t sit well with me and I got to leave. LOL!

[boogerbear]

I actually cheered a couple of times during the preview for Watchmen. It was almost cruel to put a movie after that great a preview, luckily the movie was good enough to survive.