RichC2

No 3d upcharge, TDKR doesn't have a chance.

That said it took forever for a movie to break $100m (Spider-man) in the 10 years since then 20 other movies have pulled it off. That includes several terrible movies (Twilight 2 and 4, Spider-man 3) and one that came out of left field (Alice in Wonderland). While I don't see many making $200m I wouldn't say it's out of the picture.

I'll be more impressed when something dethrones Avatar as highest grossing (unadjusted), it took 12 years to beat Titanic. $760m domestic/$2.8b total is a lot to beat.

Deftones

2015 seems likely since 2013 gives us IM3 and Thor 2 and CA2 is reportedly coming in 2014. Maybe do the Hulk or Black Widow/Hawkeye in 2014 as well and transition into the Avengers in 2015.

Artman

See ya in three years! lol. Seriously, I don't see anything on the horizon... TDKR will be close to 200, but beyond that.... this is just a case of all cylinders firing at the right time... release date, built-up anticipation, exceptional reviews, etc. even this sequel will only be bigger due to ticket prices imo.

It's exciting times no matter how you look at it. I find the BO numbers fascinating, but I'd rather not focus on it.

Supermallet

We're playing Alice In Wonderland again in my IMAX as a lead-up to Dark Shadows. Seeing any of it, even without sound, makes me want to go all Hulk on Tim Burton and do what the Hulk does to Loki.

Mr. Cinema

Does anyone think The Hobbit might have the 2nd highest opening this year?

Hokeyboy

I'm thinking The Hobbit won't have as big of an opening (but still quite huge) and have really strong legs. Unless it blows, in which case it will drop significantly.

RichC2

What if it looks like a european soap opera?

Hokeyboy

Then I will punch it in its stupid face!! WITH its stupid face!!!

Dr. DVD

I remember one poster saying in another forum that they hoped Avengers would start the downward trend in superhero movies. I doubt that's going to happen. Just my .02 .


Interesting note: I go to msn.com for my news breaks and the polls on there today and yesterday were inquiring about whether people intend to see Avengers or what they thought of it. An overwhelming % of responses are claiming they have "no interest" or "did not see it". I don't see how that is possible with the $$$ it is making.

Mr. Cinema

The film received an A+ from Cinemascore. That should translate to repeat business.

redrum

Haven't they already talked about doing 4 Avenger movies?

d2cheer

I would agree with that.

The other thing here that worked in The Avengers favor is there was no competition at all this weekend. I seem to recall when TDK opened it pretty much didn't have much opening the week before or after either when it got the record.

I still remember poor Hellboy getting crushed...

E Unit

The demographic is probably a bit different from those who read msn and those who are seeing The Avengers over and over. There sure were a ton of kids at the showing I went to. I don't see them chiming in on polls like that.

TimeandTide

Probably mentioned already, but Avengers is also way more kid friendly. At the sold-out showing I went to on Sunday afternoon, there were a ton of kids my son's age. We won't see that audience at TDKR's opening weekend.

Mr. Cinema

The Avengers will also easily break TDK's opening week record and Avatar's 2nd weekend record. It'll also be the fastest to $250 mil and $300 mil, both TDK records.

Quake1028

I would love TDKR to break the record, but it has no chance in hell.

mdc3000

Do we know a running time on TDKR yet? I'm pretty sure any talk of The Hobbit or Avatar 2 breaking the record would be diminished when those films come out with LONG running times that make it impossible to beat the record due to not being shown as many times a day as something like The Avengers that is just over 2 hours.

I think everyone here is forgetting about this one, clearly the next film to cross $200 million in an opening weekend:

Solid Snake

I think running time isn't really important w/ those films. Avatar was 162 minutes for example. If it's popular it'll get it's money .

Obi-Wanma

It isn't important for the total. It is important for the single weekend record. Longer your movie is, the less number of times it can run. Simple math. I don't think Avatar broke any opening weekend records.

Mr. Cinema

TDK was 150 minutes and had the record. I don't know if 25-30 minutes longer would make much of a difference.

RichC2

Avatar had an opening of $77m, it was seen to be big budget but people didn't know what to expect. It also opened in the holiday season meaning people are in less of a rush as they have 2 weeks to do as they please. The movie pulled $75.6m in its second weekend, a drop of 1.8%. Really had very little to do with the runtime (and afterall, was all of 10 minutes longer than The Dark Knight).

Avengers was 142 minutes and pulled $207m
The Dark Knight was 152 minutes and pulled $158m
The Hunger Games was 142 minutes, pulled $152.5m
Pirates of the Caribbean 2 was 151 minutes, pulled $135m.
Avatar pulled was 162 minutes, pulled $77m.
Return of the King was 201 minutes, pulled $72.6m.

Return of the King was also released in 2003, ticket prices were a little more reasonable and there really was no 3D/IMAX (IMAX releases of regular movies were rare at least, Matrix Reloaded being one of them).

Similarly, Transformers 2 pulled $108m opening weekend and that movie was like 8 hours long.

Defiant1

TDRK is 133 minutes, which will make it the shortest of the three Nolan Batman films (BB was 140 min. and TDK was 152 min.). The Avengers is 143 minutes so the number of showtimes per day TDRK will have so be pretty much the same as The Avengers does.

Movies that are released over the holidays don't break opening weekend records. There's just too much going on at that time of year. Instead, they tend to have great legs, raking up tons of cash while a bunch of crap leftover films are released over January and February. Remember that Avatar only had an opening weekend of $77M.

Mr. Cinema

That's a good point on the holiday films. I Am Legend owns the December opening weekend record at $77.2 million.

starman9000

The Monday/Tuesday takes will be interesting. TDK and Avatar did really well on those. Will the avengers be able to come close with school still in session?

Mr. Cinema

Spider-man 3 earned a little over $10 million on its first Monday and Iron Man 2 took in over $9 million, both kicked off May. I'm hoping The Avengers can earn at least $15 million or more.