‘The Dark Knight Rises’ earned $160.9M in wake of tragedy
LOS ANGELES (AP) — “The Dark Knight Rises” earned a sizeable $160.9 million over the weekend, making it the biggest 2-D opening ever, but falling slightly below expectations following the mass shooting at a Colorado screening of the Batman film.
Warner Bros. said Monday that the final installment of director Christopher Nolan’s Batman trilogy earned $160,887,295.
The debut makes “The Dark Knight Rises” the biggest 2-D opening ever ahead of its 2008 predecessor, “The Dark Knight.” It also gives the movie the third-largest opening after the 3-D films “The Avengers” with $207.4 million and “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows — Part 2” with $169.2 million.
Despite the impressive $160.9 million opening, “The Dark Knight Rises” fell somewhat below box office expectations going into the weekend, which ranged from $170 million to $200 million.
“Clearly, ‘The Dark Knight Rises’ was on everyone’s minds,” said Paul Dergarabedian, an analyst for Hollywood.com who specializes in box office. “I think the American public showed they were not going to be sacred away from the movie theater by the actions of a lunatic.”
Dergarabedian called the film’s opening “extremely impressive given the tragic events that unfolded on Friday.”
“The Dark Knight Rises” earned $19.1 million alone from IMAX screenings. Tickets for 3-D and IMAX films cost a few more dollars than 2-D screenings, netting extra cash at the box office. Movies released in 3-D typically earn under half of their income in 3-D screenings, sometimes as little as a third.
Sony, Fox, Disney, Paramount, Universal and Lionsgate joined “Dark Knight Rises” distributor Warner Bros. in publicly withholding their usual revenue reports this weekend until Monday. They did so out of respect for the victims and their families after the mass shooting that left 12 dead and 58 wounded at a midnight screening of the movie in Aurora, Colo.
Following behind “Dark Knight Rises” in the No. 2 spot was “Ice Age: Continental Drift,” the animated Fox film which dropped 56 percent in its second weekend to $20.4 million, and the Sony superhero reboot “The Amazing Spider-Man,” which earned $10.9 million during its third weekend at the box office, in the No. 3 position.
The top 10 movies at U.S. and Canadian theaters Friday through Sunday, followed by distribution studio, gross, number of theater locations, average receipts per location, total gross and number of weeks in release, as compiled Monday by Hollywood.com are:
1. “The Dark Knight Rises,” Warner Bros., $160,887,295, 4,404 locations, $36,532 average, $160,887,295, one week.
2. “Ice Age: Continental Drift,” Fox, $20,416,978, 3,886 locations, $5,254 average, $88,840,284, two weeks.
3. “The Amazing Spider-Man,” Sony, $10,887,111, 3,753 locations, $2,901 average, $228,611,425, three weeks.
4. “Ted,” Universal, $10,011,310, 3,214 locations, $3,115 average, $180,431,425, four weeks.
5. “Brave,” Disney, $6,024,987, 2,899 locations, $2,078 average, $208,774,173, five weeks.
6. “Magic Mike,” Warner Bros., $4,291,432, 2,606 locations, $1,647 average, $101,966,459, four weeks.
7. “Savages,” Universal, $3,398,880, 2,336 locations, $1,455 average, $40,055,075, three weeks.
8. “Tyler Perry’s Madea’s Witness Protection,” Lionsgate, $2,253,074, 1,540 locations, $1,463 average, $60,289,622, four weeks.
9. “Moonrise Kingdom,” Focus Features, $1,831,471, 895 locations, $2,046 average, $36,087,959, nine weeks.
10. “To Rome With Love,” Sony, $1,420,891, 552 locations, $2,574 average, $11,107,993, five weeks.