Drop

Back to the Ledger effect on The Dark Knight box office. It did have an effect. I don't think in the morbid curiousity way, but in the early publicity way. His performance was being hyped well before he died, so you already had average people aware of the film, his death just brought even more attention. It probably turned a good portion of people who were in the maybe column to yes people. A lot of them might have turned closer to the film release, but because they jumped over so early it kept building.

It was a lot of components that made that film a success and it was also important how they all built up. I think if any one component of the pre-release hype (Ledger death, great reception and continued appreciation of BB, great marketing, perfect release time, great critical notices, etc.) was left out and the film would've made a great deal less (but still huge). Impossible to predict how much, but all of that stuff coupled with everyone really liking the film made it huge.

RichC2

On a semi-related note, FX just paid $24m for rights to show Star Trek. It will begin in about 30 months (around December 2011).

Deftones

$7 million for Monday's take. That's damn good for a weekday.

madcougar

That doesn't seem like a lot - but I have no point of reference.

RichC2

It varies movie to movie, there was apparently a small bidding war for 'Trek (probably between FX and TBS). The normal going price is apparently 12% of the final domestic gross, so this price was negoiated going off the idea Star Trek would stall at $200m domestic.

This is from FX picking up Superman Returns:

A similar 12% figure was thrown around in the Star Trek reports.

Matthew Chmiel

Must kill FX that Superman Returns can be found in the $5 bin at most places.

[On that note, I am one of the few supporters of that movie on this board.]