Chapter 630: The Highest-Grossing Weekend

The film's pre-release marketing had been incredibly thorough, stirring the curiosity of countless people. A massive number of moviegoers wanted to be among the first in theaters to witness The Dark Knight for themselves. The advance screenings and Friday's full slate of showings burned through enough of that initial enthusiasm that when Saturday passed and Sunday arrived, the tallied Saturday box office figures inevitably showed a slight decline.

The drop was minimal, however, and would not significantly impact The Dark Knight's overall box office trajectory.

On Saturday alone, the film raked in 64.67 million dollars in North America. Not only did it crush the competition, it also marked the second-highest single-day gross in the history of the North American film market.

By Sunday, the fever for The Dark Knight had finally cooled slightly, with the lines outside standard 2D theaters mostly gone. But after two days of word-of-mouth, the stunning impact of the IMAX format had spread widely among fans. Even with the IMAX Company's 100 theaters showing The Dark Knight around the clock, they still couldn't meet the demand. IMAX tickets were virtually impossible to get.

Due to a busy work schedule, Norman Hiller hadn't attended the advance screenings or paid enough attention to the IMAX format. He had only gone to see a standard 2D version on Friday. Listening to his colleagues and friends describe the IMAX experience made him regret his poor choice.

On Sunday morning, Hiller sat at his computer desk, refreshing various movie ticketing websites over and over, but every site ruthlessly informed him of the same thing—no IMAX tickets for today, and none for tomorrow, either!

"How could this happen?" He slapped his forehead hard. "I'm such an idiot!"

Closing all the ticketing sites, Hiller opened Google, ran a search, and took out his phone to call the IMAX Company's ticketing hotline.

"I'd like to ask, when will there be tickets for The Dark Knight in the Los Angeles area?"

"I apologize, sir."

A pleasant female voice came over the line, but her words were exactly what Norman Hiller didn't want to hear.

"The Los Angeles area is temporarily sold out. The earliest availability will be next Thursday."

"Next Thursday?"

Norman Hiller frowned as he thought of a workaround.

"I'm the head of the Duke Rosenberg Los Angeles Fan Association," he said. "Could you see if..."

"I apologize. We are temporarily sold out."

Hearing this, Norman Hiller had no choice but to book a ticket for Thursday. He offered his thanks and hung up the phone.

Unable to book an IMAX ticket for today, and with nothing else to do for the time being, Norman Hiller stopped dwelling on it and simply opened Google to search for news about The Dark Knight.

Among the results, a report about IMAX caught his attention.

The subject of the report was the chairman of the IMAX Company's board of directors, who was speaking about the recent ticket shortage for The Dark Knight.

"Not only are there no tickets for this weekend, but the tickets for the next three days are also completely gone," he said. "Every single seat has been sold. We've expanded our screenings as much as possible, yet our attendance rate is still sitting at one hundred percent. There has never been a film with this much draw."

Reading this improved Norman Hiller's mood. After all, seeing a director and a film you supported receive such widespread acclaim would make any fan happy.

With his spirits lifted, his thoughts turned to other matters. Earlier, when he had logged onto IMDB, he found that under the targeted attacks of certain individuals with ulterior motives, The Dark Knight's rating had slipped to 9.9. He needed to rally more people to rate the film and try to pull its score back up, or at the very least, slow its decline. He absolutely had to secure its number-one spot on the TOP250 and ensure the situation with The Lord of the Rings 3: The Return of the King didn't repeat itself.

Back then, it was the brain-dead fans of The Godfather repeatedly spamming one-star reviews that had dragged The Lord of the Rings 3: The Return of the King down.

As a leader of the Duke Rosenberg Los Angeles Fan Association, Norman Hiller had been keeping a close eye on the situation. Among the usernames leaving one-star reviews, he vaguely recognized some IDs that had left an impression on him in the past.

If it weren't for those people spamming ultra-low one-star scores, The Dark Knight definitely wouldn't have fallen from a perfect 10 to a 9.9 so quickly.

Staring at his computer screen with his chin resting in one hand, Norman Hiller thought for a moment before gradually making up his mind.

He logged into his email, selected all the members of the fan association, and sent a mass email. He called on everyone with voting rights to give The Dark Knight a perfect score of ten, and to spam one-star reviews for its TOP250 rival, The Godfather!

"Defending without counterattacking has never been the style of a Duke Rosenberg fan!"

Just after sending the email, Norman Hiller received numerous replies and burst into laughter.

A silent war on the internet had only just begun.

Time slowly crept into Sunday evening. New York was brightly lit, looking as if it would never rest. Inside the Times building in particular, nighttime was often the busiest part of the day.

Inside the editor-in-chief's office, Editor-in-Chief Bryan Beman issued instructions to several of his managing editors.

"Tomorrow, we're issuing a special extra," he ordered.

The editors immediately perked up. For the New York Times to issue a special extra meant that something monumental must have happened today or over the past week.

"The type and content of the extra..." one editor asked curiously.

"An entertainment extra!"

Hearing their editor-in-chief's words, the editors exchanged confused glances. Instances of the New York Times issuing an entertainment extra were few and far between.

Bryan Beman didn't keep them waiting and said directly, "The Dark Knight and Duke Rosenberg."

The editors suddenly understood. The film had currently set off a massive craze in North America. Within just a few days of its release, it had shattered every North American film market and box office record that could be broken. Barring any accidents, its opening weekend box office would also be an astonishing figure. Issuing a special extra for such a director and film was completely justified.

"I will personally write a box office bulletin," Bryan Beman said, turning to instruct his assistant. "Once the weekend box office statistics arrive, bring them over immediately."

For any media outlet, this was a busy night. The entertainment section editors in particular hardly slept a wink the entire night, racking their brains for new ways to praise Duke Rosenberg and his new movie.

Just as the sky began to lighten, copies of newspapers were transported to newsstands and paperboys. A major publication like the New York Times would be promptly delivered to every corner of America.

When the sun illuminated the streets of Manhattan, Aerin Lauder walked into her office.

Just as she sat down, her assistant brought over a freshly brewed coffee along with her daily itinerary. Aerin Lauder picked up the coffee and took a sip. The temperature was perfect, and she nodded in satisfaction.

Setting the coffee cup down, Aerin noticed her assistant hadn't left yet. "Lilith, is there something else?" she asked.

Knowing her boss's habits, Lilith said directly, "Today's New York Times issued a special extra for The Dark Knight."

Aerin Lauder glanced over her itinerary. There were no urgent matters to handle.

"Bring me a copy," she said.

Lilith hurried to the door, retrieved a copy of today's New York Times from the newspaper rack, and placed it on the desk in front of Aerin.

Taking the newspaper, Aerin didn't bother looking at the other sections. She pulled out the special extra and began to read through it.

"The highly anticipated The Dark Knight hit 4,460 theaters in North America last Friday with an ultra-wide release, raking in a massive 192.26 million dollars over the three-day weekend. With a per-theater average as high as 43,107 dollars, it successfully claimed the box office crown for the weekend. At the same time, it smashed through various box office records with unstoppable momentum, becoming the highest-grossing opening weekend film in Hollywood history. Warner Brothers' 150-million-dollar investment has been recouped in the blink of an eye."

"Starting from the midnight screenings in the early hours of its opening day, The Dark Knight's box office announced its determination to create a miracle with the posture of a victor. The figure of 22.18 million dollars surpassed the 16.5 million-dollar midnight screening record set by Star Wars Prequel 3: Revenge of the Sith in 2005, catapulting it to become the new box office king of midnight screenings. Following that up with its opening day performance, The Dark Knight reached a single-day box office of 68.36 million dollars, seizing the title of the highest single-day box office in film history. Combined with the 18.87 million dollars earned from the advance screenings, its cumulative North American box office has reached 211.13 million dollars, making it the fastest film in North America to break the 200-million-dollar mark."

"The Dark Knight's glory has reached an unparalleled zenith, and the statistics are the truest and most direct reflection of that."

"Largest opening scope record—4,460 theaters; highest advance screening box office revenue—18.87 million dollars; largest midnight screening premiere—raking in 22.18 million dollars across 3,160 theaters; largest IMAX theater midnight premiere—earning 920,000 dollars across 125 IMAX theaters; highest single-day box office revenue in history—69.36 million dollars; highest Saturday box office revenue in history—64.67 million dollars; highest Sunday box office revenue in history—59.23 million dollars; highest IMAX giant screen premiere weekend box office—9.87 million dollars; fastest time to break 200 million dollars—four days..."

"Due to The Dark Knight's outstanding box office, the overall North American film market box office this weekend has also set a new record. Originally, the second weekend of July in 2006—the opening weekend of Pirates of the Caribbean 3—held the highest overall weekend box office in the American film market, generating 219 million dollars. However, driven by The Dark Knight this weekend, the American film market box office reached 239.5 million dollars, making this week the highest-grossing weekend in the history of the Hollywood film market!"

"Each of the above titles proves the massive commercial success The Dark Knight has achieved today. Regarding the reasons for the film's success, this paper has summarized the following points—males account for fifty-two percent of the film's audience, creating a relatively balanced male-to-female ratio, meaning the film appeals universally to both men and women; Duke's exceptionally high-quality Batman Begins roped in a batch of loyal viewers for the current The Dark Knight; Duke Rosenberg possesses a massive fan base rarely seen in the directing world, along with a terrifying box office draw; and the Joker, played by Heath Ledger, has sparked massive conversations."

"In terms of word-of-mouth, 69 media outlets gave The Dark Knight an aggregate score as high as 94, and its IMDB rating reached a lofty 9.9. It can be said that there is universal acclaim. Among them, the outlets that gave the film a perfect score of 100 included 46 major media organizations such as Variety, Hollywood Reporter, and Time."

"Next weekend, The Dark Knight's box office is guaranteed to break 250 million dollars. Looking at the current situation, it is highly likely to secure the box office championship for the 2007 summer season. As for whether the film can snatch the title of the highest-grossing superhero movie from Spider-Man, that remains to be seen."