Some backlashes are bigger than others. See: Titanic.

Yeah, that one is a shame. I don't think it's a perfect movie by any means, but it is definitely a good one. I do understand why some people were turned off by the phenomenon that surrounded it though. I was in junior high at the time and girls in class were extremely annoying. But that doesn't mean the movie should get crapped on as a result of their annoying behavior.

Would you say people generally loved The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe? As that also strikes me as a film that audiences really liked, but didn't seem to love.

Let me guess, you and your friends liked Avatar but didn't love it?

You seem to think I'm slighting Avatar. I'm not. (I'm also not slighting Narnia.) I just think there's a difference between films audiences love, like TDK, and really like, like Avatar.

My opinion of Avatar is probably higher than most people here.

There really is no evidence to suggest that audiences liked Avatar but didn't love it. Every piece of evidence points to audiences loving it

Except that it seems to have had absolutely no impact on the public consciousness. How many friends do you have that quote Avatar?

Anecdotal evidence is useless

So we define what audiences love based on box office, then?

Anecdotally, films that audiences love seem to resonate. People talk about them well after their release. Star Wars. Indiana Jones. Lord of the Rings. People are still talking about The Dark Knight. Who is talking about Avatar?

And please remember, I loved Avatar. I gave it an A. I'm hardly some hater trying to bring it down.

Anecdotally, none of my friends quote The Dark Knight or have even mentioned it more than a year (whenever Inception came out). Does that mean that TDK wasn't a loved movie?

Avatar was more widely appealing as it is a much lighter and easier to follow story than The Dark Knight or Inception.

Okay, HP7-2's numbers convince me to join this club...

190 might not even be enough to break the opening weekend record

Me too.

So, given what it looks like Potter is about to achieve, we can probably brace ourselves "THE BATMAN SAGA ENDS" in every single piece of media. The teaser trailer pretty much has that, heh.

If they really market this one as the last Batman series then I guess $190m is a slight possibility, though I still believe that it might not be the case.

4 of the 6 Batman movies have held the opening weekend record for a reason. America loves Batman.

Potter is getting such huge increase over previous movies because 3D was shoved into eager moviegoers. I don't see how TDKR will increase this huge when there is only IMAX to support it even with inflation.

Inflation is pretty powerful when you're talking about 4 years and $158.4m to start with. 2010 average ticket price is already 10% higher than 2008. We won't know the accurate 2011 price until next year when they give us a revised estimate. God knows it didn't drop 3 cents like they're currently saying. It's 3-5% increases every year. Even going conservative with it, you're looking at $8.12 for 2011 and $8.36 for 2012. $8.36 is a 16.4% increase over the $7.18 price from 2008. $158.4m multiplied by 1.164 equals $184m.

Did I mention that TDK achieved its $158.4m total on 9,000 screens? WB managed to get 11,000 screens for Potter. My guess is they will try to get a similar amount for TDKR, which will help it quite a bit. The theaters couldn't meet demand, which led to the crazy Monday/Tuesday numbers because of spillover. And on top of all this, TDK had 94 IMAX screens whereas TDKR will likely have 300 or more IMAX screens. $190-200m is definitely possible for it even without 3D, but I don't think it's going to have the same demand that TDK did. I'm predicting $162m, which is still awesome and would still lead to a total well over $400m if the film is good.

I'm in only if you raise it to $200m.

Without 3D, it's definately going to much it that much harder for TDKR to beat Potter. Are the two Breaking Dawn's in 3D, that's the only movie which i can see taking the opening day record from Potter.

By the end of next year, i see the top 3 opening day and opening weekends to change dramatically with entries by the two Twilights and TDKR. I also think The Avengers may have a shot at a huge opening as well.

Breaking Dawn's are not in 3D and I am sure they will not take OD record from Potter for this very reason. Actually the 3D+IMAX ratio for that midnight would have been so high I believe the OD admissions would be on par for HP 7.2 and New Moon.

Well, 100m+ OD and 190-200m+ OW is now looking more likely only it would seem very slightly less amazing now in case it happens because of Potter's record shattering opening.

Naah I think people are over-estimating Potter effect. The chances have increased though I still see it making $180m which would still be more than enough to break the OW record both in terms of gross as well as admissions.

$100+ mil OD. $210+ mil OW