'The Dark Knight' Sets New Box-Office Debut Record

What a weekend it must have been for the guys at Warner Brothers! In spite of the fact that everybody estimated that their latest movie, 'The Dark Knight' will open at around $100 million over the weekend, the movie exceeded all expectations and made $155.3 million for the studio.

This means that the latest installment in the Batman franchise managed to dethrone 'Spider-Man 3,' which opened last year at $151.1 million, setting a box-office record for movies opening over a 3-day period of time. However, there are a few things that Spider-Man fans could use as arguments as to why the latest Batman movie hasn't actually done better than the last one in their favorite franchise.

First of all, even though 'The Dark Knight' made about $4.2 million more that 'Spider-Man 3,' the ticket prices are up compared to last year. When 'Spider-Man 3' had been launched, viewers had to pay an average of $6.88 to see the movie, while  today's average ticket price is estimated at $7.08. After one does the math it becomes clear that the latest Batman movie managed to get less people to come to the cinema than Spider-Man had.

And let's not forget about the fact that 'The Dark Knight' opened in more theaters than the latest Spider-Man movie. What is more, the Warner Brothers movie was featured in 94 Imax cinemas nationwide, while 'Spider-Man 3' could had been watched in 84 such theaters. Taking into account that people need to pay an average of more than $12 dollars per ticket for watching a movie in a Imax cinema, the 10 more such places where 'The Dark Night' was screened certainly contributed to the movie's success.

However, it is not sure how well the movie will fare in the long run. Of course, it is expected to join 'Iron Man' and 'Indiana Jones: The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull' as one of the movie to make more than $300 million this summer, and it is very likely to set the record for the best first week earnings at the box-office. Nonetheless, the latest trend in audience behavior is not one that favors films in the long run. Even though people tend to go and watch the movies just after they are released, making them set debut record after debut record at the box-office, the audience loses its interest faster than before.

One of the things that led to the movie becoming such a big success was the death of the actor that plays the evil clown called the Joker. Heath Ledger, who also starred in the Oscar nominee movie 'Brokebak Mountain,' was found dead in his Manhattan apartment because of an accidental overdose of prescription drugs.

As far the international earnings of the movie are concerned, they haven't been as spectacular as the US ones. 'The Dark Night' managed to outsell its competition in most of the countries where it was released, but no record was set. The movie had its biggest international success in Australia, the home of Heath Ledger, where it managed to make a little over $13 million.