Film School Rejects » Dark Knight Mania

The Dark Knight Wins Big At Saturns

David Baxter — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 14:12:12 +0000

The 35th Annual Saturn Awards were held last night, which makes them at least five months past being relevant. The big winner of the night was The Dark Knight which picked up five awards including best action/adventure/thriller, best writing, best special effects and best music. This was topped off with a best supporting actor nod for Heath Ledger, making it his 25^th award win. I’m not sure where they keep records for amount of awards for one role, but that is a phenomenal amount. Other big winners in the film category were Iron Man and The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button, which picked up three awards apiece.

In the TV section, Battlestar Galactica took home three awards including best actor and actress, plus best cable series. Showtime’s popular serial killer drama Dexter was awarded only two. And who can argue with that, as these are two of the best television series that we’ve seen in a long, long time. The best television series award went to Lost.

I still can’t shake the feeling that none of this matters. Next year they’ll be proudly honoring Star Trek and Terminator: Salvation, both which were already out before this year’s awards! Maybe they should have a better cut off in place. A solid choice would be the Oscars. After the Oscars no one gives a damn about who wins awards from the previous year, because the ‘big’ ones have been handed out already. Nonetheless the winners can be found at SaturnAwards.org.

What do you think? A cut off point for awards?

The Dark Knight Breaks All Sorts of Blu-ray Sales Records

Neil Miller — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 18:09:24 +0000

Normally I would write this up in jest, saying something like “oh my god!” or “breaking news!” But I’m feeling mature this morning, so I will just unleash the press release below, in which the people at Warner Bros. Home Video inform us that their bat movie made more money with the sales of $35-50 DVDs than we will ever make in a lifetime. Thanks WB, as always you are a class act.

“The Dark Knight” took the world by storm on Blu-ray and DVD, breaking records for 2008. The blockbuster hit from acclaimed director Christopher Nolan became an instant must-own classic with Blu-ray sales of over 1.7 million units and total DVD and Blu-ray sales of 13.5 million worldwide*, including consumer sales and rental sales, in one week. Brisk consumer sales – totaling over 10 million with one week of sales reported – are expected to continue through the holiday season. “The Dark Knight” is the best selling Blu-ray title in history and will become the best selling 2008 title overall this week. The response to the digital copy offering included on the Blu-ray and Special Edition DVD has been remarkable with the number of consumers activating their digital copies approaching 300,000. “The Dark Knight” is already the number one movie for the year on the iTunes 2008 Chart.

“The Dark Knight” marks the first time that a major feature film has been shot in part using IMAX® cameras, marking a revolutionary integration of film formats. “The Dark Knight”t Blu-ray disc takes advantage of the marriage of IMAX® and 35mm formats by using the hybrid master to replicate the unique theatrical experience. The IMAX scenes are also included on the 2-disc Special Edition as bonus materials.

“The Dark Knight” comes from Academy Award® nominated filmmaker Christopher Nolan (”Batman Begins,” “The Prestige,” “Memento”), and features commanding performances from Christian Bale (”Batman Begins,” “3:10 to Yuma,” “The Prestige”), Academy Award® Winner Michael Caine (”The Cider House Rules,” “Children of Men”), Academy Award® Nominee Heath Ledger (”Brokeback Mountain”), Gary Oldman (”Hannibal,” “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix”), Aaron Eckhart (”Thank You For Smoking,” “No Reservations”), Maggie Gyllenhaal (”Stranger Than Fiction,” “World Trade Center”) and Academy Award® Winner Morgan Freeman (”Million Dollar Baby,” “Wanted”).

* The Dark Knight figures included sales data from US, UK, Canada, Japan, Benelux and Australia

If you are one of the few people who have not yet picked it up, check out The Dark Knight on Blu-ray and on DVD over at Amazon. For those with ADD, you can also get it via Amazon On-Demand.

The Dark Knight: Because You Need a DVD Shopping Guide

Neil Miller — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 03:00:31 +0000

It is ridiculous for me to even be writing a ‘Guide to Buying The Dark Knight‘ in anticipation of tomorrow’s release — or if you’re a real die hard, this evening’s release. But since all of the cool kids are doing it I feel it necessary to blatantly plagiarize Pete at /Film’s hard work and copy the details of all the exclusives that can be found at various retail outlets. Check out the count below, with some additional information dug up by yours truly:

Amazon.com (My preferred DVD retailer)

Single DVD: $14.99
2-Disc Special Edition DVD: $20.99
2-Disc Blu-ray Special Edition: $23.99
2-Disc Blu-ray Limited Edition Set with Batpod: $47.86
Purchase the The Dark Knight on DVD or Blu-ray from Amazon.com and watch it for free on Amazon Video On Demand.

Best Buy

Single DVD: $14.99
2-Disc Special Edition DVD: $22.99
2-Disc Blu-ray Special Edition: $24.99
2-Disc Blu-ray Limited Edition Set with Batpod: $49.99
Free Joker playing card (which features an image of Batman in the advertisements) with purchase of any of the editions.
Free Batman or Joker replica mask with purchase of the 2-disc DVD or the Blu-ray Batpod gift set.
Free $20 Best Buy gift card with purchase of the Blu-ray edition and a Samsung Blu-ray player.

Circuit City

Single DVD: $14.99
2-Disc Special Edition DVD: $22.49
2-Disc Blu-ray Special Edition: $26.99
2-Disc Blu-ray Limited Edition Set with Batpod: $59.99
Exclusive “Why So Serious” slipcover for 2-disc DVD
Free limited edition Batman logo journal with purchase of 2-disc DVD

Sears

Single DVD: $18.89
2-Disc Special Edition DVD: $22.99
2-Disc Blu-ray Special Edition: $26.99
2-Disc Blu-ray Limited Edition Set with Batpod: $59.99
Free Dark Knight calendar with purchase of 2-disc DVD or the Blu-ray edition

Target

Single DVD: $14.99
2-Disc Special Edition DVD: $20.99
2-Disc Blu-ray Special Edition: $23.99
2-Disc Blu-ray Limited Edition Set with Batpod: $46.99
Collectible Batman mask packaging for 2-disc DVD and Blu-ray editions.

Toys ‘R’ Us

Single DVD: $25.99
2-Disc Special Edition DVD: $29.99
2-Disc Blu-ray Special Edition: $32.99
2-Disc Blu-ray Limited Edition Set with Batpod: n/a
Free Batman projector flashlight with purchase of any edition of The Dark Knight

FYE

Single DVD: $17.99
2-Disc Special Edition DVD: $25.99 (Steel book)
2-Disc Blu-ray Special Edition: $24.99
2-Disc Blu-ray Limited Edition Set with Batpod: $47.99
Exclusive steel book packaging on 2-disc DVD edition.

Wal-Mart

Single DVD: $14.86
2-Disc Special Edition DVD: $20.86
2-Disc Blu-ray Special Edition: $23.86
2-Disc Blu-ray Limited Edition Set with Batpod: $47.86
Exclusive comic book and Two-Face replica coin with purchase of single-disc DVD.

Note to those who prefer visual stimuli — the /Film report has all sorts of pictures for these exclusives. I am way too lazy for all of that junk.

Where will you be buying The Dark Knight?

‘The Dark Knight’ About to Join the Billion Dollar Club

Neil Miller — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 18:26:54 +0000

In the world of making money at the box office, the ‘Billion Dollar Club’ is probably the most exclusive of them all. And when I say a billion dollars, I am talking about films that actually made a billion dollars at the box office — none of this ‘adjusted for inflation’ junk. The club currently includes Titanic, which took in $1.8 billion dollars worldwide, The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King, which took in $1.1 billion and Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest, which brought in $1.06 billion.

And soon to be added that list is The Dark Knight, which currently sits at $992.8 million dollars worldwide, according to Box Office Mojo. And according to Nikke Finke, Warner Bros. is saying that TDK is up to $997 million as of this past weekend. And with the studio planning a January re-release to help push the film during award season, it is almost inevitable that it will cross the $1 billion mark. As well, The Dark Knight currently sits at $528 million in domestic receipts, some $70+ million behind the all-time highest grossing film Titanic. While the $600 million mark and the title of highest domestic gross of all-time is a stretch, the return to theaters in January will certainly make things interesting.

On a seperate, but related note, Warner Bros. has begun its Oscar campaign for The Dark Knight online. If you head over to their For Your Consideration site, you can find additional info about the film and download the script.

Do you think that The Dark Knight could cross the $600 million mark with a January re-release?

The Dark Knight Sets Another Box Office Milestone

Maggie Van Ostrand — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 00:31:59 +0000

The Dark Knight has passed $400 million domestic in 18 days, a feat that took 2nd place Shrek 43 days to accomplish.

TDK is now #8 on the list of all time money earners and might, by the time you read this, have already moved to #7, passing Spider-Man’s 403.7 million. When that happens TDK will become the top-grossing comic-book adaptation of all time.

Warner Bros. expects the film to pass the original Star Wars ($461 million) in about two weeks, making it No. 2 on the all-time domestic list behind Titanic ($600.8 million), but that number will change when adjusted for higher ticket prices.

Can The Dark Knight Sink the Titanic’s Box Office Record?

Adam Sweeney — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 22:14:18 +0000

There have been a few films that fall under the category box office phenomenon. Sadly, Titanic stands at the top of the box office list. But if all things go according to fanboy plan, The Dark Knight may be the iceberg to the once unsinkable Leo Dicaprio ship.

The LA Times is reporting that distribution executives are starting to seriously debate whether or not The Dark Knight can take down the Titanic, which finished with a mind boggling $600.8 million dollars at the box office. The Dark Knight is set to pass the $400 million dollar mark by its 18th day, pretty impressive considering it took the much more family friendly Shrek 2 43 days to get to that mark.

“This has become a cultural phenomenon on so many levels” said IMAX Filmed Entertainment President, Greg Foster. “Even my dad has seen it three times.”

Can the Caped Crusader pull it off? Well, it has a demographic to match the drooling teenage girls who repeatedly viewed Titanic, the comic book fan. It has a memorable performance from Heath Ledger, like many felt Leo and Kate Winslet had, and it is only two weeks into its’ run. I think we may witness history.

If The Dark Knight knocks off Titanic, which would be incredible, I think it would only be fair for there to be a press conference on a building where Batman gets to drop Celine Dion off a building Salvatore Maroni style. Who’s with me?

You can read the rest of the Los Angeles Times article here.

Do you think The Dark Knight has enough steam to overtake Titanic?

Let’s Talk About Two-Face: Spoilers Ahead!

Brian C. Gibson — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 14:50:47 +0000

Warning: This Article Contains Major Spoilers

I’m sure by now that anyone who ventured into this post has seen the biggest movie of 2008, The Dark Knight. Judging by the box office numbers, rabid comments and critical reception that most of you would like to see a third film. Now everyone made the assumption that TDK would be The Joker’s film, and end by introducing a new villain in Aaron Eckhart’s Harvey “Two-Face” Dent. Now you know what happens when we assume…

I am going to make three assumptions. First, I am going to assume that you have seen The Dark Knight. Secondly, I assume that you might have been surprised about the death of Two-Face. Finally, that you are left wondering to yourself who will be the next film’s villain. Some names that have already come up (with some getting squashed early) are The Riddler, The Penguin, Bane, Deadshot, Two-Face and even The Joker once again. So who is it going to be? I think Harvey Dent will show his faces in the next film.

If Harvey “Two-Face” Dent is to be the next villain, that would have to mean he is alive, right? Did they ever say he was dead? Did you see a casket? All the film showed was a motionless body, and what seemed like a memorial service. Remember, Batman and Gordon are ready to lie about Harvey’s actions in order to preserve his reputation, so why wouldn’t they lie about his death? For all we know, Gordon could have transported Harvey to a maximum security cell in Arkham. Maybe Harvey is brooding in his cell right next to his new pal.

If Gordon and Batman were to conceal his death and lock him up in Arkham, that would give Two-Face even more of a reason to hate Gotham and its officials. Talk about ammunition for revenge, the guy would come out swinging. So go see the film again. If I remember correctly, Batman even said something like “Noone can ever see him like this.” Would you say something like that about a dead man? Everyone knows he is disfigured, but not everyone knows about his newly acquired vengeful and murderous personality.

One of the first things that led me to this conclusion is that Christopher Nolan has some director trademarks that point directly in this direction. First, Nolan has an obsession with pairs or the number two. In Memento, Leonard had two people trying to manipulate him throughout the film. In Batman Begins there were a pair of villains, both with dual identities/personas. In The Prestige there were two main characters which were both two men at sometime within the film (Borden as a twin, and Angier as a copy), and had both romanced two different women within the film. In The Dark Knight you see two good characters Batman/Gordon battling Joker/Two-Face, with Two-Face being a man with obviously two faces. Also Nolan has a repeating theme of fake deaths/coming back from death within his film. Ra’s Al Ghul ends up not being dead in Batman Begins. Borden cheats death in The Prestige. Gordon even faked his own death in The Dark Knight. So would it be too far fetched for a man with two faces to cheat death in Nolan’s newest film?

I guess the next question would be is Two-Face’s story arc complete? In other words, what appeal is left in bringing Two-Face back? I don’t doubt that we may see Harvey Dent again, but to what capacity is left to be seen.

The Joker’s Magic Trick T-Shirt

Brian C. Gibson — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 22:32:06 +0000

So if you have seen The Dark Knight, then a magic trick that makes a pencil disappear should mean alot to you. It seems that the infamous scene has already gained some fanfare, and Redbubble user LuckyMachete has decided to immortalize the scene just for you. You can now wear a piece of The Joker’s lunacy right across your chest for just $22.94. I’m sold.

Source : Redbubble

Comic Origins: The Joker

Robert Fure — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 20:14:53 +0000

Things come better in pairs. What good is T without A? Who would want something that was only new and not improved? What good is a black and white cookie if its just a black or white cookie? That’s damned racist. So it should come as no surprise that one of comics greatest heroes must be paired with one hell of a villain. When talking about Batman there is no question as to who his foil is, his arch nemesis, his dance partner at the edge of hell. With other heroes, you may have to think long and hard for that one constant presence and arguments break out, but no, not with the caped crusader. With him, there is only one answer – The Joker.

Knock Knock

Much like the origins of The Bat-Man, the beginnings of the man who would laugh are a bit more complicated than simply listing a name or an artist or telling a knock knock joke. If you ask original Batman creators Bill Finger and Bob Kane where the Joker came from, the response is simple – Bill Finger showed Bob Kane a picture of Conrad Veidt from the silent film The Man Who Laughs and said “Here’s the Joker.” Kane took his inspiration from that and after some pencil work, the character took shape.

Ask Jerry Robinson, a distinguished artist who worked on Batman in the 1940s, and the issue is a bit more hazy. Robinson contends that he drew a playing card sized image of the Joker from a deck of cards that inspired him and handed it off. Upon seeing the drawing, Robinson says that Finger saw the card and was reminded of Conrad Veidt and the story resumes from there.

Clearly, both the playing card Joker and the Conrad Veidt photograph look remarkably like what the drawn Joker would become, so there may never be an actual punchline to this knock knock joke.

The Joker made his first appearance in Batman #1 (1940) as a mass murdering, oddly painted fellow who developed a “Joker toxin” that he used to perform murders that he’d announce ahead of time. In his second appearance, Batman was about to put an apparent end to the Joker before editor Whitney Ellsworth suggested the character remain alive.

In these early appearances, the Joker managed to rack up an impressive murder count up in the 30s and managed to survive many circumstances that could have easily resulted in death. By the mid-1950s though, the Comics Code Authority began its reign of censorship, and the Joker went from a calculated killer to a campy, laughing fool who posed little threat to anyone. Consider The Joker from the Adam West Batman TV series, and you won’t be far off on his intimidation level. The character became such a joke (no pun intended) that in 1964 under the editorial oversight of Julius Schwarz, he disappeared from the storylines altogether.

Back Soon, Gone Crazy

Artist Neal Adams and writer Dennis O’Neil, who helped bring Batman back to his darker roots, brought the Joker back to Gotham in Batman #251 in a story entitled “The Joker’s Five Way Revenge.” O’Neil wanted to bring the character, in fact the entire Batman continuity, to its darker, pulpier roots and thus the Joker went from bumbling fool to casual killer on the page in 1973. This Joker remained, a wanton killer of the innocent menacing Gotham, until the 1988-1989 storyline “A Death in the Family,” where he cemented himself as Batman’s most dangerous and personal foe by killing Jason Todd, the then-current Robin. After battering the boy to death’s door with a crowbar, he left an explosion to finish him off. Joker wasn’t the only one who wanted his death, of course, as readers had a chance to vote on whether Todd lived or died. They spoke, and the Joker secured his position as top among the Batvillains.

The 1980s had one more major turnabout for the vaudevillian villain with Alan Moore’s 1988 classic “The Killing Joke.” In this One-Shot that inspired aspects of The Dark Knight, an engineer turned failed comedian turned reluctant criminal is blackmailed into helping a pair pull off a robbery. Double-crossed with his pregnant wife murdered, the engineer finds himself in the midst of a shoot-out and face to face with Batman. Diving to freedom, he manages to escape through a waste disposal tube which bleaches his skin, dyes his hair green, and warps his now bright ruby red lips. The main plot revolves around the Joker attempting to illustrate that just one bad day can ruin any man’s life and turn him insane by kidnapping and torturing, physically and mentally, Commissioner Gordon and crippling his daughter, Barbara (unknown to Joker and Gordon, she was previously Batgirl).

There are several origin stories for the Joker, many similar to the one above, with various differences. But as the Joker himself said: “Sometimes I remember it one way, sometimes another… if I’m going to have a past, I prefer it to be multiple choice!”

The Batman, The Joker, and Fate Walk into a Bar

And joker beats Robin to death with it. Sorry, had to. The relationship between Batman and Joker is complex and cleverly intertwined. Both were created in a single night of loss. Batman lost his parents and devoted himself to fighting crime. Joker lost his looks, his wife, his life, and his mind and dedicated himself to chaos. Whereas Batman will go far out of his way to save anyone, Joker will casually kill anyone who comes into eyesight if it would provide him a laugh.

In Frank Miller’s oft-cited “Batman: The Dark Knight Returns”, the Joker has sat comatose for years in an asylum until he sees a news report indicating that Batman has returned. Within seconds he awakens from his subdued state and the evil grin creeps back across his face. The Joker exists as the exact counter to Batman. Without Batman, there is no Joker. With no Batman, there is no Joke. In a theme that was expressed at the end of Batman Begins, Batman’s escalation of the war on criminals may directly have resulted in the rise of supercrime, with The Joker as the ultimate example – something of an evil counterweight.

In “Batman: Dark Detective” the Joker goes as far to say that Batman is his perfect foe and if he actually killed him, he would no longer have a perfect enemy and then, without a perfect enemy, he would no longer himself be perfect. In failing, or often just not fully committing, to kill Batman, the clown prince revels in his own sense of perfection. For as long as they both exist, Batman and The Joker will be tied together, each trying to defeat the other mentally without ending the life of the other.

Joker’s Wild

What does it take to be the top dog of Gotham’s criminals? The one even the hardened bad guys don’t want to cross? A whole lot of crazy and a good bit of determination, as well as a clever purple suit. The Joker is most often reflected as a nameless man who has either gone complete batshit (get it?) crazy or someone on the verge of hyper-sanity, adapting to any situation as is deemed necessary to survive. His list of crimes is thousands long. He has executed singular individuals on a whim, killed random targets for no reason, and murdered hundreds in a single afternoon in a single gas attack. Had he the opportunity, the clown would have detonated a nuclear weapon in a major metropolitan area.

With all this comes a twisted relationship with Batman. The Joker wants to convince the Bat that his crusade is meaningless and absurd. To win, he must not kill, but convert. One method he deems appropriate in this crusade is murder and he has many tools at his disposal. The Joker has used bombs, crowbars, guns, knives, gas, and a variety of other instruments in his war on, well, society. Most often depicted in a purple suit with or without a matching hat, the psychopath is a fan of acid or gas or water spewing flowers and palm buzzers capable of killing. One particularly humorous weapon was a gun that upon pulling the first trigger released a “BANG” sign – the second pull fired the sign into the victim. However, when it comes to hand to hand combat, the joke is often on the Joker. While he’s agile and durable, once Batman is within arms reach, it’s no difficult task for the caped crusader to put the man who laughs out cold on the floor.

The Punchline

From a villain who almost took the big dirt nap on his second outing to one of the most popular villains of all time, responsible for one of the longest standing and most shocking deaths of all time, The Joker has captured readers attention as the Anti-Batman. In a world with a force fighting for good and order, nature dictates there must be balance, and the clown prince fills that role perfectly. The classic image of the clown or the jester, a symbol of childhood fun, warped into a murdering madman who would just as soon take the lives of an orphanage’s worth of children as he would have orange juice for breakfast.

The Joker, while not overreaching in terms of his goals manages to bring interesting and dangerous stories to the world of Gotham and impact Batman in a way that few others can – on a personal level. While we may not always understand the joke, the man telling it has secured his place among the evil elite.

The Dark Knight Box Office: $60 Million Down, Two Days Left

Neil Miller — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 08:09:33 +0000

Hours ago we reported that The Dark Knight had scored its second box office record of the weekend mere hours after hitting theaters. When it opened yesterday morning, it saw screens in a record number of theaters, 4,366. When the first numbers came rolling in from midnight shows, record #2 was in the books — $18.5 million is the highest midnight opening of all-time, beating out Star Wars Episode III’s opening of $16.9 million.

Early this morning, reports began to stream in saying that The Dark Knight has, in fact, added another record in its first 24 hours of release, bringing in between $60 and $63 million on Friday — the largest single-day opening gross. This surpasses the mark set by Spider-Man 3, which took in $59.8 million on its way to the $151.1 million record setting opening weekend last May.

This will continue to fuel the fire for The Dark Knight’s record-chasing weekend. After of slew of positive praise from critics including not one, not two but three ‘A+’ grades from the reviewers on this site, as well as a marketing campaign unlike anything we’ve seen before, the film went into the weekend with records within reach. And, as a fan of the film, I can say that I am extremely happy to see it exceeding even the loftiest of predictions.

Of course, while there are still two days left in the weekend, and another $90 million or so to go before The Dark Knight takes the biggest opening weekend gross record away from Spider-Man 3, it certainly appears to be on its way.

The Dark Knight Box Office: Down Goes the Midnight Record

Neil Miller — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 21:27:13 +0000

Going into this weekend, there was no question that The Dark Knight, director Christopher Nolan’s infinitely praised and super-highly anticipated follow-up to his 2005 Batman franchise reboot Batman Begins, was going to make a lot of money. In fact, I believe the proper metaphor would be that it is going to drive away with truck-loads of cash at the box office.

That said, it should come as no surprise to anyone that it is being reported this afternoon that the film has set the all-time box office record for a midnight opening, bringing in an estimated $18.5 million. This number, however, doesn’t include any of the 3:00 a.m. or 6:00 a.m. shows that were being run in theaters across the country. And as I experienced very early this morning as I exited one of the midnight shows in town, the 3:00 a.m. shows were filling up quite nicely as well.

For those keeping score at home, this marks two box office records thus far for The Dark Knight — the widest opening ever (4,366 theaters) and now the largest midnight opening gross, beating out Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith, which made $16.9 million in its midnight release. That film, which opened on a Thursday, went on to make $50 million in its first day. The current all-time record for highest single day opening is Spider-Man 3, which made $59.8 million. While we will have to wait until sometime very late this evening or early tomorrow to see whether Batman can add another notch on his utility belt, for now we can safely say that things are going well for the caped crusader.

Did you go to a midnight screening of The Dark Knight? If so, did anything fun/crazy/interesting happen?

Photo courtesy of Flickr

Video: Sam Rockwell is The Batman

Brian C. Gibson — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 16:20:14 +0000

Hey kids, I bring another fan film into the officially cool world of Film School Rejects. This fan film though, features none other than Sam Rockwell as The Batman, and Justin Long as Robin. The video is called “Robin’s Big Date!”, and is hilarious in my opinion. If you want to know something about this video before you invest your time, know that Batman calls Robin “cock-block junior”. So enough with the hype and on to the video…

Source : The Red-Headed League

If you have any suggestions for our Officially Cool feature, please send an email over to brian@filmschoolrejects.com.

Mamma Mia! The Dark Knight is Here at The Reject Report

John Cairns — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 15:03:38 +0000

It’s all about The Dark Knight here at the Reject Report — almost, anyway, because Mamma Mia! is also rolling out — and the question everyone has is whether this movie is going to be the one to shatter all the box office records.

We know the critics have been hailing this movie like crazy, with the few dissenters reportedly being ostracized and criticized by the fans. We know the hype is through the roof, with the usual interest from the comic-book fans and heightened interest in Heath Ledger’s final riveting performance. And it’s translated into a huge theater count. We don’t know if any records will fall as far as daily or 3-day gross are concerned but we do know this: at 4,366 theaters, this is the largest theater count for a domestic release of all time.

So a record has fallen before the midnight screenings are even held! And we are hearing reports of sellouts all over North America. But there is competition at the theaters this weekend in Mamma Mia! and Space Chimps. So it will be a much more interesting weekend at theaters than anyone has a right to expect.

I want to keep everyone in suspense some more about The Dark Knight and its prospects, so what I am going to do is get these other two pretenders out of the way first, and then I will concentrate on the Caped Crusader. Suffice it to say I will start off by raking the people over the coals at Universal and Fox, respectively, for allowing Mamma Mia! and Space Chimps to open wide this weekend against The Dark Knight. What are these distribution people smoking? And drinking, for that matter? These two movies are going to get killed.

Mamma Mia! is based upon the wildly successful stage production that took London’s west end, Broadway and everywhere else by storm. I know all about it: I lived in Toronto for a lot of years and Mamma Mia! ran there forever. It was a huge freaking hit there, so everyone in these big cities knows all about Mamma Mia! and what it’s about. According to the blurb over at IMDB, this is “the story of a bride-to-be trying to find her real father told using hit songs by the popular 70s group ABBA.” Amanda Seyfried, Pierce Brosnan, Colin Firth, Stellan Skarsgård and Meryl Streep are part of the big cast.

Now, this flick is already a huge hit worldwide. It finished at the top of the UK box office, opening in first place with 5.2 million pounds. So this flick has been raking in the cash all over Europe. Now, here’s the question I have. Why the heck didn’t they release this flick one week earlier in the USA?! It defies common sense to put this flick up against The Dark Knight, when it could have opened one week earlier and possibly done better business. Heck, Universal could have released Mamma Mia! last week and held off on Hellboy II until later in the summer, and this ABBA-themed flick probably would have made $40 million dollars! It’s a strange decision, one that is about to blow up in Universal’s face.

Needless to say, I’m not impressed. I am predicting $21 million dollars for Mamma Mia, which is something like $10 or $20 million less than what it ought to have made — all because the timing of this release SUCKS. I know the theater count is almost 3,000, but who cares: everyone at the multiplex is going to be there to see Harvey Dent.

Next is Space Chimps and all I have to say about this release is that this movie has already been buried so badly by The Dark Knight that I question whether anyone is even aware that this movie is opening this weekend. The prevailing attitude is summed up by the famous last words “who cares?”

Space Chimps is based on a computer-animated video game of the same name and features astronaut chimps who are sent to a far-away galaxy. And to put it mildly, these chimps ain’t exactly John Glenn or Neil Armstrong. Andy Samberg, Cheryl Hines and Jeff Daniels are the featured voices.

Anyway, I’m done talking about this movie. $5 million is my prediction for Space Chimps. And now onto The Dark Knight.

The name of the movie is probably most associated with that limited release of Batman comic books in 1986 by Frank Miller, called “Batman: The Dark Knight Returns.” In that series Batman came out of retirement to do battle with the forces of evil. That reinvigorated the Batman franchise and we saw a number of other “Dark Knight” comics come from the DC banner. Anyway, we now have the movie The Dark Knight, which picks up the story from after Batman Begins. Christian Bale returns as Bruce Wayne/Batman, continuing his fight against organized crime in Gotham City. It’s a challenge so daunting that Batman must contemplate devoting his entire life to fighting the criminals, with no end in sight. There is hope on the horizon with the arrival on the scene of crime-busting district attorney Harvey Dent (played by Aaron Eckhart), who may take over the fight. But onto the scene comes the villanous Joker, played by Heath Ledger. Batman must renew his crime-fighting ways against the Joker while Harvey Dent morphs into the frightening Two-Face. The film also stars Maggie Gyllenhaal as Rachel Dawes, Wayne’s love interest, and it features performances from Morgan Freeman, Gary Oldman, Michael Caine, you name it. It’s directed by Christopher Nolan who co-wrote it with his brother Jonathan Nolan.

I don’t need to say much more about the plot of the movie, because everyone is sick to death by now of all the articles about this flick that have been all over the websites. Heck, Film School Rejects has done The Dark Knight to death by now. People just want to see the movie and get on with it.

Obviously, this is the most anticipated movie that we have seen in a long, long time, and a lot of it has to do with Heath Ledger. There’s the obvious freak-show factor involved with seeing a posthumous performance on-screen, but the consensus is that Ledger is scary-good in the role and could be up for an Oscar. And superhero movies just cannot go wrong at the box office these days, it seems. So many of them have finished in first place at the box office that it is a joke. This plus the Ledger factor make it the perfect storm for a big performance at the box office.

The only concern is about the running time (152 minutes) hindering repeat performances, plus competition from two other new movies and the usual batch of holdovers from last weekend. This should not be much of an issue because Space Chimps and Mamma Mia! are going after different audiences. Besides, they are going to be roadkill in the Dark Knight express anyway. When you think of it, there isn’t much out there that can compete with The Dark Knight for the next few weeks when you think of it. This movie is going to make so much money that it’s going to be a joke (pardon the pun).

The movie opens at 12:01 AM Friday morning with midnight showings on 3,000 screens. There are reports of sellouts all over North America (almost 4,000 at last report) and sold-out IMAX theaters just about everywhere. The Dark Knight was up to fifth among MovieTicket.com’s top five presale list of all time, and that was as of two hours before midnight. As well, we are hearing reports that there are round-the-clock screenings, including 6am showings planned at many theaters. Now, that is ridiculous, ladies and gentlemen. Who wants to go see a movie at six-o-freaking clock in the freaking morning?! I don’t care if it’s The Dark Knight! Midnight movies I can understand, but this?!? This is INSANE, but the fact that they are even showing this thing on screens at 6am says a lot.

From what I gather The Dark Knight is going to propel the theaters to their biggest weekend of box office business in history. Whether The Dark Knight will set records all by itself is a story in itself. I think right now the Friday record COULD be in jeopardy, though it will be a tall order to top the $151 million that Spider-Man 3 took in for its opening weekend in 2007. The Friday/opening day record is 59 million, held by Spider-Man 3. The Saturday record is $51 million, held by Spidey 3, and the Sunday record is $39.9 million. Again, held by Spidey 3.

So these are the records that are on the line this weekend — and as I have said earlier, this is the widest theater count ever. I gotta say, it’s really nice to even talk about records being in jeopardy, for a change, because we haven’t talked about records falling in a long time.

Any opening over $100 million will be the biggest of the year. Lots of people are predicting that The Dark Knight will make it to $130 million and some are even daring to predict it will beat $151 million.

Now my fearless prediction: The Dark Knight this weekend will make… $136 million!!

Aaaargh!!! Yes, a big weekend for the Batman, but also one with a lot of competition, enough to make a small dent and prevent a complete steamroller. But this will be the weekend of The Dark Knight. No question about it, this is a great weekend to be a movie fan.

My predicted order of finish:

1. The Dark Knight	$136 million
2. Mamma Mia!	$21 million
3. Hellboy II: The Golden Army	$16 million
4. Hancock	$15 million
5. Journey to the Center of the Earth 3D	$10 million
6. WALL-E	$9.5 million
7. Wanted	$6 million
8. Space Chimps	$5 million
9. Get Smart	$4.5 million
10. Meet Dave	$2.3 million

See you later with all the weekend numbers! We’ll see if any records have fallen.

The Dark Knight: Tell Us What You Thought!

Neil Miller — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 07:29:34 +0000

Chances are that you, like me, are just getting home from seeing The Dark Knight at a midnight or 3 a.m. screening and you have come to the great halls of the interwebs to see what everyone is saying. And we want to know what you thought. But first, a few key steps must take place:

1. Change your pants. You are starting to stink.

2. Close your mouth. You are beginning to drool.

3. Sit there for a few moments, allow the size of the film to sink in. Also, you will need some processing time for what the last 45 min. of the film just did — if you don’t allow it time to process, your head may explode.

Alright, once you are done with all of that, I have two ways for you to express yourself. The first is our RejectNation Poll. Give us your grade for The Dark Knight below:

Also, we are very interested to get your review of the film. Please leave it in the “Sound Off” section below! Just be sure to keep it spoiler free — we wouldn’t want to ruin it for anyone else.

Interview: The Dark Knight Scribes David S. Goyer and Jonathan Nolan

Neil Miller — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 01:18:59 +0000

In Christopher Nolan’s world, a comic book movie doesn’t have to be based on just one version, just one book in a 60+ year lineage. And no one knows this better than the two men who worked with him to craft the story for The Dark Knight, screenwriters David S. Goyer and Jonathan Nolan.

We had a chance to sit down with them during the press junket for The Dark Knight to talk about where the film’s story comes from, how they crafted the very unique dynamic between Batman and The Joker, and where Harvey Dent fits into the picture. Take a look below at the Q&A with the scribes of The Dark Knight.

There is an interesting dynamic between Batman and The Joker in this film…

David Goyer: A little bit of that dynamic between The Joker and Batman.

Jonah Nolan: I think there’s a ton of it, if you look at it from a slightly different perspective, what is The Joker trying to do in the killing // he’s trying to drive one of the Batman’s allies crazy.

David Goyer: Yeah, I think that relationship we definitely called from “The Killing Joke.”

What other comic books did you reference?

Jonah Nolan: Well, it’s easier to say what didn’t we reference, I felt like we read all of them. I mean I grew up Batman fan, David did too, so there’s a lot of that already in there but then when you embark on these things, DC sends you everything.

David Goyer: Obviously there’s some “Long Halloween” in there. There’s some Miller stuff there’s I think in this one less though than the first one, some of the Denny O’Neil stuff but it’s like yeah, we were looking at stuff from the eighties.

Jonah Nolan: And we got sort of midway through the process and went back and looked at the first appearance of The Joker in the books and found like we kind of wandered all the way back to it, there’s a couple of moments in Batman I which are almost sort of shot for shot moments that emerged in the film which felt very gratifying to have kind of reverse engineered your way back to what felt like a starting point for the character.

David Goyer: But the truth is we read every single Joker and Two-Faced appearance from, all of them.

Jonah Nolan: Yeah, hundreds of them.

There’s a real richness to this story. How much of that is you going to Chris and saying this is what you want to do and how much is it Chris saying I want a richer deeper story?

David Goyer: Chris definitely wanted to, it was not a foregone conclusion that we were going to do a second film and even when we started talking about a second film, then it was a long process where we talked about whether or not this story that we were coming up with was worthy or better than the first one, but Chris is great, the best experience I’ve ever had is working with Chris, because it’s a very open environment, we fight, we argue

Jonah Nolan: A lot.

David Goyer: A lot, yeah, I mean it’s he fosters that. You know, and it’s just let the best idea win, he’s not a dictator, or he’s a benevolent dictator,

Jonah Nolan: That’s what I’d say, absolutely

David Goyer: So you know, it’s definitely we fight, we scream we say that sucks, that’s stupid, that’s you know,

Can you talk about a little bit more about the process?

Jonah Nolan: David and Chris went off and butted heads for a while and came up with a story, and then a really great story and then you [David] had to go off and direct, we were, he’s a busy guy, we’re very lucky to get him and get in there, and then they handed it over to me and gave me, let me take a crack at it at a first draft. Chris is always going to take the last pass on these scripts going in, he’s a writer as well as a director kind of 50/50. and so he’s always going to get in there and take that last crack at it, so our job is done well in advance of the film, so for us it’s been this kind of fascinating experience of getting the work done and then waiting a couple of years to see what comes out the other end, and it’s been enormously satisfying this time.

Talking about how difficult it is to write a sequel that’s better than the first film, are you also going to – what do you think are the chances are for a sequel to this one?

David Goyer: It’s I mean, I think Warner Brothers would like to do it I don’t want to, and so I think as far as Chris goes, we haven’t had any long conversations about it yet, I mean it wasn’t until three or four months after Batman Begins that it opened that Chris and I sit down and talked about another one and we’ll have to see it. It definitely it’s a much scarier proposition. It was a scary proposition trying to do The Dark Knight and it’s sort of a geometrically proportional scary proposition for to try to do another one, but

Jonah Nolan: Absolutely.

But you selected such an opening space where now, you know, you’ve got to –

Jonah Nolan: I think the idea as much as anything is to make a complete film but also one that suggests the universe that the comic books, to me this is how I’ve always imagined it. You can, if we hadn’t made a sequel to Batman Begins you would imagine that that Joker card explained where we’re at in the comic books and sort of opened into that universe so really the idea was to

Jonah Nolan: The movies still feel complete I mean I think if there was not a third one, it’s not like Omigod! These things haven’t been answered you know.

David Goyer: That’s the idea very much is to make complete films.

So how early in the story development did Harvey Dent come in to the story? I mean was he part and parcel of the idea?

David Goyer: He wasn’t immediate I mean but fairly soon I mean it became apparent as we were talking fairly quickly on that Harvey was actually the protagonist of the movie, you know, that The Joker doesn’t change and Batman doesn’t really change, but Harvey is the one that changes as a result of his interaction between The Joker the Batman. And obviously he changes in a tragic way so you know, that means the movie has to be a tragedy.

Speaking back to the mythology of it, I’m curious and Chris spoke a little bit about this earlier, but both Harvey Dent and The Joker don’t really have an origin in this movie and I wonder how you feel about that.

Jonah Nolan: Well, we covered Batman’s origin in the first film. And there’s obviously the arc of the film as David was saying is the tragedy of Harvey Dent, which is in a sense the origin of the villain Two-Face, sort of like we told a more complete story here, and I think the idea was most appealing to all of us about The Joker was that he cuts through the film, that he’s an elemental villain.

What was the biggest challenge with the character of The Joker?

Jonah Nolan: You know, weirdly, somewhat frighteningly he was the easiest character ever written, I think that character is common to a sort of long history of – you’ll find a version of him in almost every culture, going back thousands of years, sort of taps into something elemental the sort of jokester, the trickster, and it just kind of, you sit down and write that character and there’s a, it just kind of appears.

Because he doesn’t seem to be motivated by power…

David Goyer: And he doesn’t have a cause, so you don’t have to justify any of his actions, so it’s one of these rare instances in telling a story where in fact the whole point of the character is that you’re not justifying what he’s doing.

Jonah Nolan: Yeah, his emotional life consists of pleasure in watching the world crumble around him.

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