A spectacular movie combined with a strong viral marketing campaign and the sad, unexpected death of Heath Ledger helped Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight break major box office records. When all was said and done, The Dark Knight grossed $155.4 million making it the highest weekend opening ever for any film. The previous record was held by Spider-Man 3 which made $151.1M. Not only that, The Dark Knight also broke opening day and single day gross records making $51.3M and $39.9M respectively.
This whole movie was awesome and it was due largely in part to Heath Ledger’s superb portrayal of the Joker. That, along with the always great Christian Bale, Michael Caine and Morgan Freeman impressed even the fickle IMDB and Rotten Tomatoes crowd. As of right now it’s the number one movie in IMDB’s Top 250, above even The Godfather, with 46 thousand votes averaging to a very respectable 9.7 while at Rotten Tomatoes it has a 94%, an approval rating usually only reserved for cheesy Pixar movies.
In short, if you haven’t seen this movie yet, you suck at life. Heath Ledger is amazing and I got free tickets to the sold out IMAX screening on Saturday courtesy of some dude in the parking lot — I didn’t even have to perform any sexual favors! Score! — which made it even sweeter.
