Due to the negative impact of the Santa Monica Mall shooting, The Dark Knight Rises had never really gained traction in its North American promotion since its release. But as media and public attention gradually shifted to uncovering the truth behind Van Diesel's car accident and death, Duke and Warner Bros. began to restart certain promotional efforts.
Although the film's box office performance was strong enough, maintaining stable momentum still required sufficient promotional strength.
In the third Weekend of The Dark Knight Rises' release, the North American film market—almost completely dominated by this movie earlier—welcomed another blockbuster: Despicable Me 2, produced by Illumination Entertainment and distributed by Universal Pictures.
This animated film, whose selling point was its silly and adorable charm, ended The Dark Knight Rises' two-week reign atop the box office, seizing the North American weekend crown with $83.51 million. However, The Dark Knight Rises still comfortably held second place. Including weekday earnings, its cumulative North American box office reached $489.21 million—just shy of the $500 million milestone.
At the same time, the film's overseas run remained steady, with a global box office total reaching $1.17866 billion.
With the end of its theatrical run still far away, such results virtually guaranteed The Dark Knight Rises the 2013 North American and global box office championships.
However, this wasn't enough to satisfy Duke or Warner Bros. Duke was more composed—although he had made many personal adjustments, and both his self-assessment and audience feedback far exceeded that of his earlier The Dark Knight, a film could never fully escape the influence of social events. After something like James Holmes happened, how could The Dark Knight Rises' overall box office possibly remain unaffected?
But Warner Bros. was not so willing to accept it. In their eyes, The Dark Knight Rises was absolutely a film on par with The Avengers. Yet now its box office numbers lagged far behind The Avengers, and those media outlets and forces that had fanned the flames naturally became thorns in Warner's side.
Business competition has always been fierce and sometimes even chaotic. Anyone with some understanding of the commercial world knew that companies or conglomerates in direct competition could often do incredible things when enough profit was at stake.
Although there was no solid evidence, Warner Bros. naturally set their sights on David Ellison.
Compared with the complex relationships and cross-shareholdings among the six major studios, David Ellison, as an outsider, undoubtedly became the primary target for Warner Bros. to vent its anger upon.
Just as Duke had said before—some things didn't require evidence. You only needed to look at who benefited the most.
As a result, both the Los Angeles Police Department and the FBI fixated on the Van Diesel death case and issued a worldwide manhunt for the private investigator who had hired James Holmes.
In this matter, Duke continued having Tina Fey keep close watch, while he himself focused more on The Dark Knight Rises' promotional and marketing efforts.
"In fact, the ending of The Dark Knight Rises is an open one," Duke said in an interview on The Ellen Show, responding to Ellen DeGeneres' question. "It allows the young officer played by James Franco to inherit Batman's legacy and become the new Batman.
He continued, "The open ending was a very important idea during filming. In that ending, Batman becomes a symbol—he could be anyone. Not every Batman fan may agree with that concept, but for us, it was vital."
"For me," Duke added, "this idea actually originated while shooting Time to Fight. At that time, I felt Bruce Wayne himself transformed into Batman. He saw himself as a catalyst for Gotham's change, treating his role as a temporary process. If, years later, Gotham truly changed, then he could disappear. That's the meaning of the entire story's conclusion—the open ending signifies that Batman is a symbol, not a man. People can die, but symbols and meanings live forever."
Ellen DeGeneres then asked, "Does the Florence scene at the end carry any special significance?"
"I've said before," Duke replied calmly after a brief pause, "that I wanted to give Bruce Wayne the beautiful ending he deserved. At the end of the film, Batman can finally retire, because his legacy—his sacrifice for the city—has been fully passed on. The scene of more than three thousand Gotham police officers and citizens fighting against Bane's criminal army proves that even in the face of mortal danger, they held the belief that Gotham was more important than their own lives. In the trilogy's conclusion, that belief is what drives these fighters against crime to charge fearlessly into battle."
It could be said that the biggest change Duke made was emphasizing the power of belief among ordinary people.
He continued, "Because of that, as the city's guardians, these people no longer need a selfless hero. And because of that, Bruce Wayne can finally retire. This trilogy tells the story of a boy who lost his parents but, with the help of loyal allies, tried to reclaim justice for the city that had once wronged him. In the end, Bruce Wayne gives Gotham everything it needs."
Letting out a soft sigh, Duke smiled. "The day has finally come when both Gotham and Bruce Wayne himself no longer need Batman—and he can finally begin the life he's long neglected."
Afterward, Ellen DeGeneres chatted casually with Duke for a bit before circling back to the ending again. "Why design the scene where Bruce Wayne and Alfred meet at the same café in Florence?"
Every film has its own targeted promotional approach. Compared to his tight-lipped demeanor during Inception, Duke was now far more open. "At the end of the film, when Alfred finally meets Bruce Wayne in a café in Florence, he realizes Bruce didn't actually die. He understands Bruce faked his own death while saving Gotham."
"I know many viewers might see it as an exaggerated coincidence—that the two could meet in the same café so far from Gotham," Duke said, shrugging slightly. "Even so, one thing everyone must remember is that Alfred was Bruce Wayne's closest friend and ally—not only during his time as Batman, but ever since the moment he was born. In the face of Bruce's tragic fate, Alfred was deeply saddened and depressed."
"Given how much Alfred had devoted to his master, it would have been too cruel not to let him know the truth. If Bruce Wayne were to tell anyone that his death was faked, Alfred would naturally be the best—and most understandable—choice."
Ellen DeGeneres nodded in agreement, and Duke went on, "So rather than calling their reunion at the café a coincidence, it's better to say Bruce Wayne was deliberately waiting there for Alfred's arrival."
He reminded, "At the beginning of the film, Alfred once told Bruce Wayne that he spent his vacations in Florence, and that he had a favorite café there. At the same time, Bruce Wayne is one of the greatest detectives in the world. Even after faking his own death, he could easily find out which café Alfred had been to."
Duke's personal interpretation of the film also aroused much curiosity among movie fans and, to a certain extent, further slowed the decline of The Dark Knight Rises' box office performance.
However, The Dark Knight Rises seemed unable to remain calm for even a moment—some new issues had arisen on Christian Bale's side.
As the actor who played Bruce Wayne, Christian Bale was clearly in a bittersweet situation recently. On the positive side, the film he starred in, The Dark Knight Rises, had achieved excellent box office results. But on the downside, he wanted to pay the commission owed to his agent and agency, yet he did not know to whom he should make the payment.
Because he was currently caught in a lawsuit between CAA and William Morris over the ownership of his compensation, Bale himself had straightforwardly filed a lawsuit against both CAA and William Morris in court.
This lawsuit was not a newly emerged issue. Ever since Bale's agent, Dan Aloni, had been kicked out of CAA and switched over to William Morris, the seeds of this lawsuit had already been planted.
The commission dispute dated back to October 2005 and had continued until it officially erupted now. The amount involved was no less than 250 million dollars, and the films concerned included Duke's Batman Prequel Trilogy, Terminator Salvation, and even some yet-to-be-announced projects.
In addition to this case, several other lawsuits regarding Dan Aloni's departure from CAA and the poaching of several major clients had also been filed at the same time with judicial authorities. The major clients Dan Aloni had taken with him included Jim Carrey, Mike Myers, David Dobkin, and nearly twenty others.
In fact, lawsuits between agencies and different agents were quite common, but lawsuits that involved agency clients themselves were extremely rare.
Fortunately, such cases usually circulated only within the industry and would not have too much impact on The Dark Knight Rises.
.....
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