TDKR is in a pretty rare position where the second film was loved more than the first one was. So audience turnover should be very low for this film. Remember that with inflation alone TDK is at about 173 million. Also a significantly greater percentage of people will watch TDKR is IMAX with the growth of IMAX in recent years. There really won't have to be huge audience growth for TDKR for it to cross 190 million.

Yep and the whole film was supposedly shot in IMAX too. It might not sell as many admissions as TDK did, but I still think this is going to be HUGE in the IMAX format especially when the general population seems to agree that it's more tolerable than 3D. Now I'm not expecting it to top TDK in the long run, but I think the OW record is guranteed to go down one way or the other.

IN.

I doubt it.

I don't think the whole thing was shot in IMAX. They never figured out how to make the cameras quite enough to really be able to handle dialogue.

I wouldn't want the whole film to be shot in imax. The aspect ratio changing for the money shots was the best part of TDK imax experience.

If Potter makes $160 million OW, then I'll join this...

Going from $158m to $190m is a 20 % increase - let's check first how many times a 20 % increase from the previous record has happened:

1974 +33 % THE TRIAL OF BILLY JACK
1975 +11 % JAWS
1978 +27 % JAWS II
1979 +21 % STAR TREK
1981 +20 % SUPERMAN II
1982 +2 % STAR TREK II
1983 +60 % RETURN OF THE JEDI
1984 +10 % INDIANA JONES 2
1987 +4 % BEVERLY HILLS COP 2
1989 +11 % INDIANA JONES 3
1989 +0 % GHOSTBUSTERS 2
1989 +45 % BATMAN
1992 +12 % BATMAN 2
1993 +5 % JURASSIC PARK
1995 +5 % BATMAN 3
1997 +42 % JURASSIC PARK 2
2001 +21 % HARRY POTTER
2002 +27 % SPIDER-MAN
2006 +18 % PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN 2
2007 +11 % SPIDER-MAN 3
2008 +5 % THE DARK KNIGHT

Historically speaking a 20 % hike is quite common, but hasn't happened in the last 10 years...

I too will wait for HP7-2's final weekend numbers before commiting...

out by a mile.

What it doesnt say is Bats opened a week after GB2 did, aka Batman destroyed a WEEK OLD RECORD by 45%, and that was with GB2 having a huge 2nd weekend; imagine if GB2 hadnt been there, Bats might have topped 50 and broken it by 70%+ .

Batman forever

http://www.rottentomatoes.com/vine/show ... 91&page=62

Interesting of note, when it comes to the teaser trailer reactions for this at HP7, apparently the audience didn't give a shit about it according to the link above.. Could this honestly be a sign of things to come?? That perhaps this franchise peeked with TDK and Ledgers death and now, moviegoers outside of the internet have moved on??? Considering this site along with RT have some of the biggest BATMAN fans there, this came to me as a surprise for as much hyperbole as you've layed on this..

That doesn't really mean much though. I've also heard reports that there was deffentially some very positive reactions and cheering, but it honestly depends on what kind of audiences people have. Maybe they weren't into any of the trailers and were only interested in the movie starting. These are HP fans afterall.

Dude, let's not spin this: It's the fucking DARK KNIGHT.. To many fans, this is the holygrail of comicbook adaptations courtesy of Nolan and because of that and as much hype and vocal the internet has been about it since it slipped out a couple of days ago, it should've had an epic reaction and didn't, Potter or no Potter.. I really think this is a sign for things to come if you couldn't even get a reaction out of an audience seeing HP7, which most likely is the same audience that will see TDKR next summer.......................Or not

There is nothing more distracting and irritating than constantly changing aspect ratios.

Dude, let's not spin this: It's the fucking DARK KNIGHT.. To many fans, this is the holygrail of comicbook adaptations courtesy of Nolan and because of that and as much hype and vocal the internet has been about it since it slipped out a couple of days ago, it should've had an epic reaction and didn't, Potter or no Potter.. I really think this is a sign for things to come if you couldn't even get a reaction out of an audience seeing HP7, which most likely is the same audience that will see TDKR next summer.......................Or not

Alright so how would you explain the clapping / cheering at the other theatres then because looking at crowd reports on twitter and IMDB there are quite a few who say there was deffentially some really postive reactions to the teaser. I'm not trying to spin anything, but your going off of a few crowd reports and saying this movie will bomb. Hell I remember seeing the trailer for SP3 in theatres and it didn't get any kind of reaction at all. Does that mean that it bombed ? NOPE!

I saw both of TDK's trailers in theaters after Ledger died and there was never any reaction to them. In fact, the only trailers I've seen reactions for over the years are usually comedies.

there was cherrig at the teaser in my theater

Mine too.

I hate to mention Avatar.

But maybe.

I'm in. Frontloading and good wom would be enough. TDK had some of the best reactions ever.

Avatar strikes me as a movie that a lot of people liked; audiences loved The Dark Knight, you know?

Its legs at the box office and huge home video sales are an indicator that people generally loved it.

Avatar was pretty much the only film that could rival TDK in word of mouth. Though I think it may have had a minor backlash.

They've both had backlash, just like every other super popular movie.

The same way there will be backlash against the latest Harry Potter movie. Some people on the internet like to hate what's popular. It's the cool thing to do.