THE DARK KNIGHT vs TITANIC

Tell me, what are you up to this weekend? Between you and me, I don't see a lot coming out worth spending your money on. I suppose you could watch Samuel L. Jackson terrorize Patrick Wilson in LAKEVIEW TERRACE. Or you could check out Dane Cook steal Kate Hudson from Jason Biggs in MY BEST FRIEND'S GIRL. C'mon though. Neither one of these movies, which are the best Hollywood has to offer this weekend, actually seems "must see", so why not put your money towards a good cause instead of a two hour waste of your time? How about you go see THE DARK KNIGHT again? It doesn't matter if you've already seen it twice already, this is important. THE DARK KNIGHT is currently running about $82 million below the grand total earned by current all-time box office champ, TITANIC. Sure that's a very large number but this is the only time in recent history that a film has come anywhere close to toppling that record and TITANIC needs to go down.


Now, let me ask you a question. Have you seen TITANIC recently? Time has not been kind. This is a film, that when released, struck such a chord with viewers that it shattered all notions of what a successful film could be. It was released just before Christmas, opened at number one with $28 million and stayed on top for a whopping 15 weeks. In the current box office climate, this would be impossible to accomplish. This is the era of the opening weekend. People need to see movies as early as possible so that they can chime in with their opinions before the following weekend when everyone starts talking about the next big thing. THE DARK KNIGHT opened with $158 million. For those of you who don't do math, that's $130 million more than TITANIC. You would think that would be plenty to overtake the king of the world but TITANIC was taking in more week on week by week four.


There is already talk of a DARK KNIGHT rerelease in IMAX theatres this January in order to generate buzz for potential Oscar nominations which could generate some decent business, maybe another $10 or $15 million. Should it earn those nominations and even go on to win a few actual awards, it could tack on another $20 million or so. That will not be enough. Batman needs your help! The campaign is officially on to sink the TITANIC and all you need to do to help is get out there and drop ten bucks to see a movie you know is going to rock.

It all comes down to this. What would you rather see as the all-time box office champ? A dated film with a story that is at times so cheesy it could be a bad movie of the week or a masterful revelation that has redefined the comic book genre? Give THE DARK KNIGHT the last laugh it most definitely deserves.

Sources:
Box-Office Mojo (for a complete box-office comparison)

IGN (for the originating campaign and plea)