It was touch and go for a day or so, but according to estimates, Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight (Warner Bros.) has won the weekend, narrowly defeating the third installment of the “Mummy” franchise, The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor (Universal) starring Brendan Fraser and Maria Bello.
Racking up its third weekend at #1, The Dark Knight added an estimated $43.8 million to its staggering $395 million take after just seventeen days, putting it in line to cross the $400 million mark tomorrow, the first movie to ever make that amount in just 18 days. (Shrek 2 was previously the fastest movie to hit $400 million, which it grossed in 43 days, so “Dark Knight” did the same two and a half times faster.) Currently, The Dark Knight is the eighth-highest grossing movie of all-time and Warner Bros.’ top grossing movie, but by this time next weekend, it’s likely to be the fifth or sixth highest grossing movie domestically as it starts targeting Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope and E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial. From there, it’s only $70 million away from becoming only the second movie in over 80 years of filmmaking to gross $500 million domestically, not accounting for inflation.
Internationally, The Dark Knight added $37 million for a total of $202.5 million overseas and a worldwide total of $597.5 million.
Courtesy Comingsoon.net
Formed in 1997, Schad began performing sketch comedy on Chicago’s north side. The troupe has since performed at countless venues around the world including The Goodman Theatre, The Second City, Steppenwolf, Lollapalooza, ImprovOlympic, the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre (LA), HERE (NYC) and the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.
Subscribe to entries
Subscribe to comments
All content © 2010 by Schadenfreude.
Pretty sure we’ll get another one now. But will it be like Spidey 3/Pirates 3?
Good thing he’s making money. Those wonderful toys aren’t going to pay for themselves, you know.
And if the third Batman flick has anything even remotely as weird and head-trippy as Jack Sparrow’s Sartrean afterlife from Pirates 3, then I’m sold already.
Johnny Depp as The Riddler! Done and Done.
** SPOILERS SO STEPHE WON’T YELL AT ME **
No Riddler. No Penguin. No Catwoman. The storyline is there – Batman Vs. the Police. Hire another actor to play the Joker, or maybe Harvey wasn’t killed in the end with that lame fall? I think you could do the entire movie on Dent getting out of Arkham, and basically undoing the lie Gordon and Batman are keeping in place that he is dead. Dent could then plot to get back at the Joker somehow – the whole time Batman has to restore his rep.
I’d be curious to see Nolan’s take on the Riddler. It seems to me that the killer in Red Dragon is basically the same type of guy creating a trail for the cops to follow. The Riddler could be pretty scary. Catwoman seems obvious, Batman’s now a criminal, so they would probably want to explore that dividing line between hero/villain. License to Print Money = Angelina Jolie as the Catwoman.
Now that you put it that way, yeah- I’d be fine with either choice. Still, the Joker ain’t dead. You could make him a supporting character – like Hannibal Lecter. THAT WOULD BE AWESOME – Copyright! Copyright! Its all mine!
I agree that Catwoman is the obvious choice…since Bats has essentially been forced into the choice that he can’t ever really be Bruce Wayne–that that normal life is closed off to him forever–then Catwoman represents the best opportunity to explore what would happen if he just never stopped being Batman.
Also, two films without letting Batman get any weird costume sex? No wonder he’s so stressed out.
One bit of industry news about #3:
Eckart and Gyllenhaal are both signed on for two pics.
My guess is that they might steal a page or two from The Long Halloween graphic novel and have Two-Face resurfacing to assassinate mobsters (eric roberts is apparently on board for two pics too). Given the end of TDK, it makes sense that Two-Face might do this to draw Batman out.
Also, my wild guess is that they are going to make Rachel Dawes the new Catwoman. I really can’t imagine why else they need a big name for a character that is constantly terrorized by men throughout the first two films.
Other fantasies I’m entertaining:
- with Ledger’s Joker captured, they have the opportunity to skirt Joker re-casting in lieu of introducing Harley Quinn, a doctor who falls in love with him at Arkham Asylum and does his bidding on the outside. And I think Jolie would make a better Quinn than Catwoman (sorry, I’m a Julie Newmar devotee)
- The Hangman could be another great continuation of the Batman-hunted image that ends TDK… in the comics, The Hangman kills cops and is eventually revealed to be a relative of Falcone’s (Wilkinson in Batman Begins)
- Farmer Ted as The Cluemaster. Cluemaster was a TV personality (game-show host) who turned to crime… his storyline dovetails nicely with “Matches” Malone, the alias Batman uses when he went into hiding and infiltrated the mob. Also, Cluemaster’s daughter did a short stint as Robin.
So how old is the rumor that Daniel Day-Lewis is playing the Joker in the third movie?
So old that I shouldn’t bother posting it here?