'Dark Knight' No. 1 at box office in spite of worst possible opening ever

By Catholic Online (NEWS CONSORTIUM)
7/31/2012
Catholic Online (www.catholic.org)

Batman installment still experiences a 60 percent drop-off in its second week

In spite of the worst possible opening ever - one in which 12 people were killed and 59 people were injured at a special midnight screening in Colorado, "The Dark Knight Rises" remained No. 1 at the nation's box offices. The latest installment in the Batman saga did, however, experience a 60 percent drop-off in receipts, and inspired a joke in the worst possible taste by stand-up comedian Dane Cook.

Anne Hathaway plays Cat Woman in 'The Dark Knight Rises,' the latest installment in the Batman franchise.

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LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - Cook, who says he didn't enjoy the film, says, "So I heard that the guy came into the theater about 25 minutes into the movie," Cook says in a clip on YouTube. "And I don't know if you've seen the movie, but the movie is pretty much a piece of crap ... yeah, spoiler alert.

"And I know that if, ya know, none of that would have happened, I'm pretty sure that somebody in that theater, about 25 minutes in, realizing that it was a piece of crap, was probably like 'ugh, (expletive) shoot me,'" Cook said.

The reduction in ticket sales for the Christian Bale comic book actioner trailed the performance of its 2008 predecessor "The Dark Knight," which fell 53 percent in its second weekend to earn $75 million.

The decline was softer than this year's huge summer hit, "The Avengers," which opened to roughly $207 million in its first weekend and fell about 50 percent to $103 million.

It's difficult to gauge how the July 20 massacre, where a gunman burst into a movie theater at a midnight screening of "The Dark Knight Rises" in Aurora, Colorado, has impacted ticket sales. "Knight" cost Warner Bros. studio around $250 million to make and tens of millions more to market.

"Dark Knight Rises" played well through the week and now has amassed $289 million total U.S. and Canadian ticket sales, and other films with huge opening weekends have fallen off more than 60 percent in the past. The domestic box office for "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part II," for instance, fell 72 percent from $169 million its first weekend to $47 million in its second.

The animated children's film "Ice Age: Continental Drift," about animals on a global adventure, retained the No. 2 spot on box office charts by earning $13.3 million at domestic theaters.
The new comedy "The Watch," brought in $13 million to land in third place. The film stars Ben Stiller, Vince Vaughn and Jonah Hill as men who start a neighborhood watch group and battle space aliens.

The top ten movies for this past weekend:
1. "The Dark Knight Rises"2. "Ice Age: Continental Drift"3. "The Watch"4. "Step Up Revolution"5. "Ted"6. "The Amazing Spider-Man"7. "Brave"8. "Magic Mike"9. "Savages"10. "Moonrise Kingdom"

� 2012, Catholic Online. Distributed by NEWS CONSORTIUM.

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Keywords: The Dark Knight Rises, Batman, box office, Ice Age, massacre

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