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Night at the movies - Batman


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Guest Hellbinder[CE]

From Boxoffice guru.

quote:

THIS WEEKEND The Caped Crusader began a new era in its cinematic life with the solid, though not spectacular, launch of Batman Begins which claimed the number one spot at the North American box office. However, overall ticket sales were slightly below last year's stretching the streak of down weekends to 17 consecutive frames. The only other new release, the Universal comedy The Perfect Man, opened poorly in seventh place while most existing films held up well.

Out of the cave and into the top spot, Batman Begins relaunched a key franchise for Warner Bros. with a five-day launch of $71.1M including an estimated $46.9M over the Friday-to-Sunday portion. The super hero tale began its box office journey with a strong start, however given the size of today's big blockbuster openings and the fact that competition was not too fierce, the debut weekend gross came in somewhat below industry expectations. Playing in 3,858 theaters as of Friday, the PG-13 film averaged a muscular $12,166 per location.

Unlike the first three Batman films which each broke the all-time opening weekend record in their respective years, Batman Begins did not debut like some of today's largest comic book films like Spider-Man ($114.8M), X2: X-Men United ($85.6M), or even The Hulk which launched two years ago this weekend with $62.1M over three days. Director Christopher Nolan (Memento, Insomnia) created a darker and more violent super hero film meant to be truer to the original comic book character and to please hard-core fans who had all but given up on the franchise after 1997's disastrous Batman & Robin starring George Clooney and Arnold Schwarzenegger.

But unlike previous Batflicks which featured big stars as both heroes and villains, Begins opted for indie film actor Christian Bale in the title role and Cillian Murphy and Ken Watanabe as baddies Scarecrow and Ra's Al Ghul, respectively. Notable names were, however, added in supporting roles including Liam Neeson, Michael Caine, Morgan Freeman, Katie Holmes, and Gary Oldman. Reviews were very positive with many critics hailing Batman Begins as the best installment yet in the franchise. How the $150M film holds up during the week and in its sophomore frame will be crucial to the future of the franchise. Last June, the studio generated similar rave reviews and fan excitement for its dark Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, but that did not prevent a steep 63% drop on the second weekend.

Overseas, Begins powered its way to $41.7M from 73 markets with approximately 8,000 screens. In many of the markets such as Japan, Germany, Italy, Brazil, and the United Kingdom, the Dark Knight bowed at number one.


I think he is totally off on his comments about the actors. The big names in this movie all had major roles as far as i am concerned. I dotn even know how he can make such a statement. This movie had a bigger overall cast than any of the other movies imo. A much better collection of very well known actors. His statement about Raz is totally puzzling and misleading.

Other than that his analasys of the box office is quite accurate imo.

This is a somewhat shacky start and not a landslide for another pick unless it holds up over the next few weeks.

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quote:


Originally posted by Hellbinder:

His statement about Raz is totally puzzling and misleading.


er, wot?

Anyway, the studio said (on CNN) that the film met with their expectations. So yes, they were aware of the uphill climb (due to the previous four movies) that it would have. With that, who cares what anyone else thinks as long as the studio is happy with its performance?

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Salutations All,

I saw Batman Begins last night.

I thoroughly enjoyed it. I think it properly displayed the mysterious and dark personna intended for Batman.

One definately wouldn't want THIS Batman as an enmey.

The progression of Bruce into Batman was well done.

Also the subtle progression of Sergeant Gordon to Lt. was noted. It is obvious that he will become police commissioner Gordon in the future.

One could nit pick "reality" issues, but like I said it would be nit picking. For example... real bats would NOT crash through glass windows etc.

All in all a very good protrayal of how I always wanted BATMAN to be presented.

Go see it.

I'll be looking forward to any sequel.

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With any luck, these box office figures will pick up steam over the next few weekends with word of mouth. I'm sure some people are still in recovery from trying to burn the image of George Clooney in a bat-nippled suit out of their minds.

I hope there's a SE extended DVD version. I thought I remembered reading somewhere about edited or deleted scenes.

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i cant even remember batman forever, maybe ill rent it. The thing with this movie is, there is no flashy stunts, or super killer fight scenes... and these days, it seems every movie over 100 mil is expected to deliver those, and there are not enough hard core batman people, the average person wants to see that stuff. At least I think so. Since I am in the super hero fan boy nerd corner...

But what I really liked about this movie is some of its messages, I mean, don't raise an eyebrow at me just yet. Being a police officer I am expected to protect life. But yet I find myself, almost HATING criminals (ok so not almost) especially ROBBERS and RAPISTS and I feel like I want to kill them. But that would be wrong... at least I think so, wrong by God, wrong by society law... being a soldier is a bit different, you know who you have to engage, but seeing criminals hurt people every day and the system just letting them go... imagine if it was your family?

So since I have taken life before this film has alot of meaning in its dialogue for me, the whole judge/jury/executioner debate.

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I weigh in with Echo. Jolie is HOT HOT HOT!!.

But the movie Batman finally returned to its roots of dark and sinister, just like the original comic books, before the 50' editors took over.

SC had it right when he said Batman wasn't a super-hero, just an every day guy with a will to do what must be done, and a little extra training. Kinda makes you appreciate the police a little more and wish they had those kinda toys and training.

Just shows what a billionaire with a will can get away with. Hmm.. Scary aint it?

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quote:


Originally posted by echo:

Hi SC! Hope all is well!


Hey Echo. I'm fine thanks. Just working hard as usual.

quote:


Originally posted by Seedog:

SC had it right when he said Batman wasn't a super-hero, just an every day guy with a will to do what must be done, and a little extra training. Kinda makes you appreciate the police a little more and wish they had those kinda toys and training.


Did you see that part where he first started moving across rooftops and he was kinda clunky at it? He was hitting and bouncing against the wall, fire escape etc. I thought that was well done and a nice touch because it showed that he was just an ordinary guy.

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Yeah, and by the time it goes to DVD, woohoo!!! I bet part 2 goes into production before the end of the year. Guaranteed.

Damn, I loved this movie. Seen it FOUR times already. If I have to see it one more time, I'm going to camp out at the theatre.

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haha, funny SC! I have seen it 4 times as well. My favourite part of the movie interestingly enough is the beginning. The first hour. Specifically the training on the ICE, the music was really great during those ICE training scenes. Would have liked to see him more on the poles...

The second one will do so much better in the beginning weekend. And maybe they'll pull back the camera just a little bit and show us some cool batman moves, no wire work, slow motion crap, but some cool stunts, ala equilibrium style.

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  • 4 weeks later...

I haven't seen any news of a second one, did the actors sign a three picture deal like spider man or something? is it possible they won't do another because they hoped to rake in alot more profit after spending 135 million to make it?

Bale is already in 3 upcoming movies. according to IMDB.

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