The Dark Knight Mows Down The Mummy: $400 Mil. In Sight
Posted by John Cairns (jcairns@filmschoolrejects.com) on August 3, 2008
Well, what can I say? The Dark Knight just keeps on rolling for a third weekend in a row! This weekend, though, it was a photo finish and a bit of an upset, as The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor underperformed quite unexpectedly and wound up in second place to the Batman.
The Dark Knight finished at 43.8 million while The Mummy 3 took 42.4 million. Yes, The Dark Knight’s run of 14 days at the number one spot ended on Friday night. The Mummy 3 won on Friday night with a $15.3 million haul to $12.7 million for The Dark Knight. However The Dark Knight roared back on Saturday with with $17.4 million compared to 14.7 million for The Mummy 3. So that settles that!
It is now almost certain that The Dark Knight will hit $400 million sometime on Monday to topple the “fastest-to-$400-million” records held jointly by Titanic and the first Spider-Man movie. It’s already up to almost $395 million. Holy — uh, I should shut up.
As for this weekend’s numbers, all I have to say is The Dark Knight did exactly what it was expected to do. Its first place finish, though, was entirely a case of The Mummy 3 underperforming and basically blowing it at the theaters. The reviews were bad and the buzz wasn’t as expected, so no wonder The Mummy 3 became the latest in a long line of movies to fall to The Dark Knight. Also, The Mummy 3 is yet another sequel, and people are sick of those. Though when you think of it, The Dark Knight is a sequel. Yet people will go see that! Anyway, the moral of the story is that people want to see good, fresh sequels, not uninspired efforts put together for the sole purpose of making money.
Two movies were notable roadkill in front of The Dark Knight express this week. Swing Vote was hammered at the cash registers and brought in only $6.3 million donated from friends and relatives of Kevin Costner. And X-Files: I Want to Believe dropped like an absolute rock after last weekend’s miserable showing, finishing with $3,425,000 in its second week. Ouch!!
The damages:
| 1. The Dark Knight | $43.8 million |
| 2. The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor | $42.4 million |
| 3. Step Brothers | $16.3 million |
| 4. Mamma Mia! | $13.1 million |
| 5. Journey to the Center of the Earth 3D |
$6.8 million |
| 6. Swing Vote |
$6.3 million |
| 7. Hancock | $5.2 million |
| 8. WALL-E | $4.7 million |
| 9. The X-Files: I Want to Believe |
$3.4 million |
| 10. Space Chimps | $2.8 million |
That is all she wrote for this weekend. What more needs to be said that hasn’t already been said? Some of you have got to be sick of me talking about The Dark Knight by now. Maybe next weekend The Dark Knight will be toppled. This can’t last forever, can it?
Next weekend Pineapple Express and The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2 roll out, so we’ll preview those here at the Reject Report.
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