really? Hmmm, ok. Then perhaps Jim Gordon is a widower and the woman in the kitchen with the kid was Barbara? Or perhaps her scenes were cut out?

Disappointing numbers? BB is projected to break well over $50 million this weekend. That'll be the best any Batman movie has ever done. This movie is getting rave reviews which is only going to fuel word of mouth and sustain business. It'll probably have run similar to the original Batman from '89 and less like Batman and Robin which crashed and burned after a huge opening weekend. How is that disappointing? Why does a movie need to make all of its money opening weekend?

L8r

But Opening Weekend is what they go by like it or not. They've been saying since it opened on Wednesday that it isn't doing as well as past Batmovies on their opening weekends. I'm sure it will do fine but I think the poster was saying that WB might panic because they -think- the movie is a bomb due to "lackluster" opening box office.

You also speak of "word of mouth". Well there's also some negative WOM and professional reviews going around that Batman Begins is slow, boring, not as fun as past movies, too long, lacks action, isn't shot right ;), and other negatives.

This can also ding the box office....

I'm glad this movie puts that overhyped BATMAN(1989) to shame.
I remember being dissapointed when I went to see that movie with it's ad tagline "THE MOVIE OF THE DECADE!".
And how about Sean Penn for choice as Joker?
He has the face when he grins of a lunatic.

Cinema takes this year have generally been lower, apart from Star Wars, which is a freak, it's a falling year for cinema takes, gotta consider that as well, so WB will be pleased.

I'm sure Warners expected numbers closer to $100 million than $50 million. I'm not sure what the original Batman's numbers are when you adjust for inflation, but I'm sure that 1989's BATMAN opening was much bigger. That doesn't mean it's a better movie, it just means the excitement for a new Batman film wasn't nearly as high as everyone expected.

Plus, BATMAN BEGINS is far from a summer "popcorn" flick. It's really a movie for the serious fans of the comic and the character...Warners deserves a lot of credit for letting Nolan make the kind of movie he made. Most kids under 12 in my theater were tremendously bored, but the adults were having one heck of a great time. Actually, I think this is the perfect "comic book movie" for the "non-comic book" fan...BATMAN BEGINS does what THE HULK tried to do and failed at: making a serious movie about a comic book character that trancends the genre.

I thought it was great. The first time the Scarecrow did his thing, I just thought 'Whoa, that was twisted. Not what I was expecting from the movie.' Great stuff.

I'll probably check it out again before it leaves theaters.

Personally, I think it's to be expected that opening weekend wouldn't be as high as the original Batman. There was no serious movie adaptation of Batman up until that point. Batman Begins doesn't have that luxury. If anything, it has the burden of having to follow Batman & Robin and put people in seats. That's not an easy task, and for what it is, I think it'll have good enough word of mouth to succeed. It probably won't do more money than the original, but it has done Batman, the Dark Knight, justice and that's enough for me.

K

That bothered me a little as well, but I got to thinking about Batman's motivations. He's basically driven by regret over losing two people he loved, so I can see him behaving a little out of character (especially early in his career) to prevent somebody else in his life from dying.

I can very well see this as what makes him distance himself from people in the future.

I've always wondered if there's a formula for inflation adjustments for BO numbers. But I'd agree that the studio was hoping for big numbers.

For comparision, Batman did $42.7 million over 3 days in 2,200 theaters in '89. By the next weekend it hit $100 million and saw only a 30% drop. That's pretty damn good numbers 16 years ago.

I think the best part of the movie was his fight sequence w/ Liam N at the temple

At the Nascar race they are going to have the batmobile run the pace laps I read. Not sure if it has been posted or not.

If Penn were to play Joker, then it'd have to be written where he's the true hero out to stop the rise of the Republican party in Gotham City.

I LOVED this Movie! I really liked Batman and Batman Returns, but this was light years beyond those two films.

By the way, I thought I had heard that Nolan wants Steve Buscemi for The Joker.

All previous Batman films opened on a Friday. Batman Begins opened on a Wednesday, which is going to affect its three day weekend gross. I don't think an opening weekend projection of $100 million was realistic, if it was ever seriously considered. BB's weekend gross is higher than all previous Batman flicks save for Batman Forever. Considering how many people were turned off to the franchise by the increasing stupidity in the films, it's amazing BB opened as well as it did. It's already grossed over $70 million and I'm positive it will have stronger legs than the last entry in the series, which sank out of sight after just a few weeks.

Wait for the second weekend numbers. If there's a considerable drop, then worry. But I don't think there will be. I'm sure this film will pass the $200 million mark domestically, and probably earn another $200 - $300 million outside the States. Not every comic book property needs to be Spider-man.

L8r

Just to clear something up, the Barbara Gordon in the movie is not the baby but Jim Gordon's wife. The baby was his son. You guys need to think back to Frank Miller's Batman: Year One (the comic book not the script). It's a refference to that.

Also, after viewing the film for a second time yesterday, I still find the find the fights easy to follow (if your willing to pay more than the usual attention) but would still have liked the camera pulled back just a bit. Didn't ruin the experience for me having it so close (at least not in this particular film) but I would have prefered it just a little less close.

I don't understand the disappointment over the up-close action sequences with no establishing shots-- that's clearly an artistic choice. All throughout the film you don't see Batman, you just see glimpses of him and the results of what he does. I can see how it'd be frustrating since you want to see him fighting, but that wouldn't fit together with what the rest of the movie is trying to do. I think it's a poor excuse to say Nolan avoided doing those shots because he can't direct action-- the whole last quarter of the movie was action!

The only problems I had with the film were minor ones. The biggest thing was the quick pace of the editing, especially around the beginning. It seemed like they were trying to get the exposition out of the way as fast as they could. I hope we get a director's cut, or at least have the dvd contain extra footage because there were parts that felt crammed together. They probably figured 2 hours and 20 minutes was as long as they wanted to draw in big crowds.

Makes sense.

As I said before, I have no real problem with the fights being up close as I found them easy to follow if you're willing to pay more than the usual attention. I would just have preffered the shots to be just a bit more open. I don't think shooting them the way the did was wrong. It's just a personal prefference thing.

And, yes, the opening montage (especially with the League of Shadows) seemed highly truncated. A longer cut would not be abad thing. Then again, I think they summarized everything rather well.

Haven't read through the thread yet,but i finally got to see it today and as a lifelong Batman fan i have got to say:
They nailed it.They fucking NAILED it!

Batman Begins is not canon. It also isn't Miller's Year One. While Year One had some influence, you shouldn't consider it as a direct translation in any means.

Jim's wife says "that's a good girl" if you listen to her while Jim is speaking to Bats. I guess it could be Jim jr. but would they be setting up his sexual confusion to make him a villain in the future?

Also, Jim's son was born before Babs in year one so Batman would be even older for us to ever get a Babs Batgirl in the films.

I did pay attention and they were still poorly shot. They could have been shot so much better. Still didn't keep it from being a great film.

I don't think it's a poor excuse at all. Look at his resume before BB. Little to no action, not on this kind of scale. I'm not saying you have to feel the same way, but the action was poorly shot, and there are more than a few people and critics who noticed the same thing.

With so many comic fans gushing over this I would have expected this movie to do better. But then again, I don't know how much clout internet and comic fan reviews hold.