I was talking with a good friend of mine about The Dark Knight and all of the records it has broken at the Box Office. Currently there is only one record left to break and that is the biggest box office of all time. Currently Titanic holds the record at $600 million dollars. The Dark Knight is currently at $471 million.
My friend mentioned how interesting it is that sometimes an event or movie will take place and it just seems to connect with the masses. He then questioned why that happens and answered with “I guess they have people to study that type of thing”.
I don’t know if they do have people to study that type of thing or not, but I do know that there are no formulas that guarantee a HUGE movie. I mean think about…what is The Dark Knight’s formula? Reboot a dead franchise about a man who dresses up like a Bat and call it Batman Begins. The character is 70 years old and has been in numerous movies, TV shows, and comics. Follow that successful reboot up with a sequel and cast one of the guys from Brokeback Mountain to play the Joker. Have that star accidentally overdose on prescription drugs a few months before the movie comes out and walla you have a successful movie.
There doesn’t seem to be a formula out there for how to make a HUGE movie. If you look at the top five movies of all time…Titanic, The Dark Knight, Star Wars, Shrek 2, and E.T. they don’t have a lot in common. In fact I can only think of two major things they have in common.
To be continued…
What do you think they have in common? Leave a comment
One thing they definitely all have in common is people going to see each of these movies multiple times. Word-of-mouth and marketing that worked in that particular year-or-so… word-of-mouth was obviously alot more prevalent when the first Star Wars came out… fast forward to the Dark Knight’s marketing campaign (which was pure genius)… it also has alot to do with each of these movies actually delivering, beyond luring people in with trailers/commercials/etc… Titanic is so huge because crazed female fans went to see that movie like 12 times each, if not more. I’ve seen TDK 3 times, and there’s a good chance I’ll see it again before it’s out of theaters.
what are the 2 things Rob?