The early promotion for this film was extremely thorough, stirring the curiosity of countless people, which caused a large number of audiences to want to be the first to enter the theater and witness the true face of The Dark Knight. The advance screenings and Friday's full-day showings consumed enough enthusiasm. When Saturday passed and Sunday arrived, the box office data for Saturday inevitably declined.
However, the decline was not significant and did not overly affect The Dark Knight's box office trend.
On Saturday, the film grossed $64.67 million in North America, not only dominating the competition but also marking the second-highest single-day box office in the North American film market.
By Sunday, The Dark Knight's heat finally dropped noticeably. In front of ordinary 2D cinemas, queues had basically disappeared. But after two days of word-of-mouth spreading, the effect of IMAX screenings had widely circulated among fans. Although IMAX theaters, with 100 locations under the company, showed The Dark Knight around the clock, they still could not satisfy the fans' demand. IMAX tickets were extremely hard to get.
Because of a busy schedule, Norman Shearer hadn't attended the advance screening and hadn't paid enough attention to IMAX. He only watched the regular 2D version on Friday. After hearing his colleagues and friends describe IMAX, he regretted making the wrong choice.
On Sunday morning, Shearer sat at his computer desk, repeatedly refreshing various movie ticket websites, but all sites mercilessly reminded him no IMAX tickets today, and none available for tomorrow either!
"How could this be?" He slapped his forehead hard. "I really grew a pig brain!"
Closing all ticket websites, Shearer opened Google and searched. Then he took out his phone and called the IMAX ticket hotline.
"I want to ask when there will be tickets for The Dark Knight in the Los Angeles area?"
"Sorry, sir."
A pleasant female voice answered, but what she said was not what Norman Shearer wanted to hear: "Tickets in the Los Angeles area are temporarily sold out, the earliest available is next Thursday."
"Next Thursday?"
Frowning, Norman Shearer thought of a plan and said, "I'm Norman Shearer, head of the Duke Rosenberg Los Angeles Film Fans Association. You see…"
"Sorry, tickets are temporarily unavailable."
Hearing this, Norman Shearer had to book tickets for Thursday first, said thanks, and hung up.
Unable to get IMAX tickets for today and having nothing else to do for the moment, Norman Shearer stopped thinking about it and opened Google again, browsing news about The Dark Knight.
One report about IMAX caught his attention.
The main subject was the chairman of IMAX's board of directors, who spoke about the recent ticket shortage for The Dark Knight: "Not only were there no tickets for this weekend, but none for the next three days either. Every seat has been sold. We are trying to expand screening coverage as much as possible. The occupancy rate reached 100%. No film has ever had such a huge appeal."
Seeing this, Norman Shearer's mood improved a bit. After all, it was always good news for a fan when the director and film they supported received such widespread welcome.
Feeling better, he thought of more things. He logged into IMDB and found that, under some malicious attacks, The Dark Knight's IMDB rating had dropped to 9.9. He decided to rally more people with voting rights to rate it a perfect 10, or at least slow down the drop, to ensure it kept the top spot in the IMDB TOP250, so that the situation that once happened to The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King wouldn't repeat.
Back then, it was the brainless fans of The Godfather who kept voting it 1 star to push The Lord of the Rings 3 down.
As one of the heads of the Duke Rosenberg Los Angeles Film Fans Association, Norman Shearer had been watching this and saw some of the IDs involved in the 1-star attacks had left impressions from before.
If it weren't for those people's extremely low 1-star ratings, The Dark Knight wouldn't have fallen from 10 to 9.9 so quickly.
Staring at the computer screen, resting his chin on one hand, Norman Shearer thought for a while and gradually made up his mind.
He logged into his email, selected all members of the fans association, and sent out a mass email, calling everyone with voting privileges to give The Dark Knight a perfect 10, and to give its top rival The Godfather a 1-star rating!
"Defense without counterattack has never been the style of Duke Rosenberg's fans!"
Just after sending the email, Norman Shearer received numerous replies and couldn't help but smile.
A silent online battle was just beginning.
Time slowly moved to Sunday evening. New York was brightly lit, seemingly never sleeping, especially the New York Times building, where nighttime was often the busiest time.
In the editor-in-chief's office, editor-in-chief Brian Berman instructed several chief editors, "Issue an extra special edition tomorrow."
The chief editors immediately became alert. Having the New York Times issue an extra special edition meant something major had happened today or last week.
One chief editor curiously asked, "What type and content of the special edition?"
"Entertainment special edition!"
Hearing this, the chief editors exchanged puzzled looks. The New York Times rarely issues extra special editions focused on entertainment.
Brian Berman didn't keep them waiting any longer and went straight to the point, "The Dark Knight and Duke Rosenberg."
The editors suddenly understood. This film had caused such a huge sensation in North America, breaking all possible records in the North American film market and box office within just a few days of release. It was expected that the opening weekend box office would be a staggering figure. Issuing a special edition for such a director and film was entirely justified.
"I will personally write a box office report," Brian Berman turned to his assistant and ordered, "Once the weekend box office statistics arrive, bring them to me immediately."
For any media outlet, this was a busy night, especially for the entertainment section editors, who hardly slept all night, racking their brains on how to find new angles to praise Duke Rosenberg and his new film.
As dawn broke, copies of the newspaper were delivered to newsstands and carriers. For a major paper like The New York Times, it would promptly appear in every corner of the United States.
As the sun illuminated the streets of Manhattan,Irene Lauder walked into her office.
Just as she sat down, her assistant brought her freshly brewed coffee along with today's work schedule.Irene took a sip of the coffee; the temperature was just right, and she nodded approvingly.
Setting down the coffee cup,Irene noticed the assistant hadn't left yet and asked, "Lilith, anything else?"
Knowing her boss's habits well, Lilith directly said, "Today's New York Times has issued a special edition on The Dark Knight."
Irene glanced at the schedule; there was nothing urgent to handle. Then she said, "Bring me a copy."
Lilith quickly went to the door and took a copy of today's New York Times from the rack, placing it on Irene's desk.
Picking up the paper, Irene didn't look at the other sections but immediately took the special edition and began flipping through it.
"The much-anticipated The Dark Knight opened last Friday with an ultra-wide release, hitting 4,460 theaters across North America. Over the weekend, it grossed an astonishing $192.26 million. The per-theater average was $43,107, securing the weekend box office crown. The film broke various box office records, becoming the highest-grossing opening weekend in Hollywood history. Warner Brothers' $150 million investment was quickly recouped."
"Starting from the midnight premiere on opening day, The Dark Knight's box office declared its determination to set a record with the triumphant figure of $22.18 million, surpassing Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith's $16.5 million midnight gross in 2005, becoming the new midnight box office king. Including the day's total, the film reached $68.36 million in box office, clinching the single-day box office crown. Adding early screenings' $18.87 million, the cumulative North American box office reached $211.13 million, making it the fastest film to break $200 million in North America."
"The glory of The Dark Knight is now hard to match; statistics are the most truthful and direct response."
"Record for the largest opening scale — 4,460 theaters; highest early screening box office — $18.87 million; largest midnight premiere — $22.18 million from 3,160 theaters; largest IMAX midnight premiere — $920,000 from 125 IMAX theaters; highest single-day box office — $69.36 million; highest Saturday box office — $64.67 million; highest Sunday box office — $59.23 million; highest IMAX giant screen opening weekend box office — $9.87 million; fastest to break $200 million — four days..."
"Thanks to The Dark Knight's success, the total North American box office this weekend also set a new record. The second weekend of July 2006 the Pirates of the Caribbean 3 opening weekend held the highest U.S. box office weekend record at $219 million. However, this weekend, driven by The Dark Knight, the U.S. box office hit $239.5 million, making it the highest box office weekend in Hollywood history!"
"Each record above proves the huge commercial success of The Dark Knight. Regarding the reasons for this success, our newspaper summarizes the following points the film's audience is 52% male, with a fairly balanced gender ratio, meaning the film appeals widely to both men and women; Duke's high-quality Batman: Begins has already gained a loyal fanbase; Duke Rosenberg has an unusually large fan base and terrifying box office draw in the directing world; Heath Ledger's portrayal of the Joker has created massive buzz."
"In terms of word of mouth, 69 media outlets gave The Dark Knight a composite score of 94 points, and the IMDb rating is as high as 9.9, receiving widespread acclaim. Among them, 46 major media outlets, including Variety, Hollywood Reporter, and Time, gave the film a perfect score of 100."
"Next weekend, The Dark Knight's box office is sure to exceed $250 million. Given the current trend, it is very likely to become the box office champion of the summer of 2007. As for whether the film can surpass Spider-Man to take the title of the highest-grossing superhero movie, that remains to be seen."