The Dark Knight

I'm incredibly jealous of you US folk and your "18th July" release date.

...Just one more week. Just one more week. Just one more week.

Ramon is right. My one brother and I went and saw it and on the way home he couldn't stop talking about it, which is amazing since he has absolutely no interest in comics or anything comic related. He asked me if most comic movies were like this and I had to laugh.

There's no comic book movie like this!

I have to agree... I went to see the midnight show too and was blow away by the complexity and emotion. Heath Ledger stole the show with his Oscar worthy performance of the demented clown.

I gave it ***** in the trailer thread, but it really should stand the test of time as a great film... not just a comic book movie.

One of this year's best movies.

I pretty much concur with everyone else on this thread. The movie was nuts and mindblowing. I definitely want to see it again (and again and again...). Even Batman Begins seems like a joke compared to this. Loved every minute. It was just too good.

Theatre I went to had 2 midnight showings - both had oversold their capacity (whoops!) but thankfully I bought my tickets earlier that day. Sadly, my friends and I ended up in row 1, which hurt the neck but was barely thought about once the movie started.

And dammit, I want a Bat-Pod.

I LOVED it! That interrogation scene blew me away! If I was Batman I would have been pissed too!

"All I want is my phone call." Haha! Great line.

Even though Scarecrow was in it for like a second, I was happy they wrapped up his story. Two-Face was done well and he looked disgusting.

And Joker, of course was phenomonal. Heath Ledger at least better be nominated for best supporting actor. He was really really good. So many memorbale quotes my personal favorite, being,

"What doesn't kill ya only makes you...stranger."

I'm leaving in about an hour to see it...!

'Dark Knight' sets weekend record with $155.34M
Sunday July 20 1:47 PM ET

LOS ANGELES (AP) Batman has sent Spidey packing as king of Hollywood's box-office superheroes.

"The Dark Knight" took in a record $155.34 million in its first weekend, topping the previous best of $151.1 million for "Spider-Man 3" in May 2007 and pacing Hollywood to its biggest weekend ever, according to studio estimates Sunday.

"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.

Hollywood set an overall revenue record of $253 million for a three-day weekend, beating the $218.4 million haul over the weekend of July 7, 2006, according to box-office tracker Media By Numbers.

"This weekend is such a juggernaut," said Nikki Rocco, head of distribution for Universal, whose musical "Mamma Mia!" debuted at No. 2 with $27.6 million.

Factoring in higher admission prices, "Spider-Man 3" may have sold slightly more tickets than "The Dark Knight."

At 2007's average price of $6.88, "Spider-Man 3" sold 21.96 million tickets over opening weekend. Media By Numbers estimates today's average movie prices at $7.08, which means "The Dark Knight" would have sold 21.94 million tickets.

Revenue totals for "The Dark Knight" could change when final numbers are released Monday.

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."

"The Dark Knight" reunites director Christopher Nolan with his "Batman Begins" star Christian Bale, whose vigilante crime-fighter is taunted and tested by Ledger's Joker as the villain unleashes violence and chaos on the city of Gotham.

Overseas, "The Dark Knight" added $40 million in 20 countries where it began opening Wednesday, including Australia, Mexico and Brazil. The film opens in Great Britain this weekend and rolls out to most of the rest of the world over the next few weeks.

"The Dark Knight," which cost $185 million to make, also broke the "Spider-Man 3" record for best debut in IMAX large-screen theaters with $6.2 million. "Spider-Man 3" opened with $4.7 million in IMAX cinemas.

"Every single show is sold out," said Greg Foster, IMAX chairman and president. "We're adding shows as much as we can, but we're at 100 percent capacity."

On opening day Friday, "The Dark Knight" also took in more money than previously counted, Fellman said. The film pulled in a record $67.85 million, up nearly $1.5 million from the studio's estimates a day earlier.

The previous opening-day record also had been held by "Spider-Man 3" with $59.8 million.

Women accounted for most of the audience for "Mamma Mia!", which Universal opened as counter-programming to the male-dominated audience for "The Dark Knight."

"With the crowded summer, we knew we would have to find the right weekend, and this seemed like the perfect one considering three-quarters of our audience was female," Rocco said.

Based on the stage musical set to the tunes of ABBA, "Mamma Mia!" features Meryl Streep, Pierce Brosnan, Colin Firth, Stellan Skarsgard, Julie Walters and Christine Baranski.

The weekend's other new wide release, 20th Century Fox's animated family flick "Space Chimps," opened at No. 7 with $7.4 million.

Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Media By Numbers LLC. Final figures will be released Monday.

1. "The Dark Knight," $155.34 million.

2. "Mamma Mia!", $27.6 million.

3. "Hancock," $14 million.

4. "Journey to the Center of the Earth," $11.9 million.

5. "Hellboy II: The Golden Army," $10 million.

6. "WALL-E," $9.8 million.

7. "Space Chimps," $7.4 million.

8. "Wanted," $5.1 million.

9. "Get Smart," $4.1 million.

10. "Kung Fu Panda," $1.8 million.

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On the Net:

www.mediabynumbers.com

The bar is set so high with comic book movies after this, but which way will it go from here? Does Time Warner finally get a clue and learn to stick to the core material or do other comic book movies now pale in comparison and come off even worse than before? Hopefully the studios have learned something here and we get a decent Superman sequel or even a great Flash or GL movie.

Is it fair to call this the best superhero movie? Seeing as how they've tried really hard to make it as un-comic book-like as possible can it really take that title? And where do they go from here and what other bat-characters will even work in this no frills universe? I know we'll never see a Robin, but will even a character like Catwoman work?

Chris is right. They've set the bar high for not only other comic movies but also for themselves.