The Weekend Box Office Report: Tropic Thunder outguns The Dark Knight

Here’s this weekend’s box office report, now with extra surprise at the performance of Vicky Cristina Barcelona.

Aside: Doesn’t it seem like there’s an “h” missing from “Cristina”? I know she’s Spanish (or whatever she’s supposed to be), but it still doesn’t seem right. Oh well, I’m not Woody Allen; I’ve never had sex with any of my adopted children.

The Dark Knight: A Month On Top And Still Fighting

One of these weeks, The Dark Knight will not be the #1 movie at the American box office. Unfortunately for Pineapple Express, this is not that week. I know The Dark Knight has no chance to catch Titanic’s epic box office performance, or E.T.’s 16 chart-topping weekends in a row, but I can still dream, can’t I?

The Batsuit Has Strong BO (Again)

For once, I got a prediction right! For the third weekend in a row, The Dark Knight has fought its way to the top of the box office charts. The #1 film took in an impressive $43.8 million dollars, which means a whole lot of people have seen it several times. The takes are slowly decreasing, to be sure, but Batman is not going anywhere any time soon. I imagine I’ll be writing about The Dark Knight until September.

Fortunately, because I need something fresh to write about, a legitimate challenger taking aim at Christopher Nolan’s Batman opus came to the American box office in the form of Brendan Fraser and Rob Cohen’s The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor. Blowing past my expectations, the fourth installment of The Mummy franchise and third official Mummy film took in an incredible $42.45 million dollars for a very strong second place. It’s staggering that a franchise this long deferred has done this well, considering Rick O’Connell is Indiana Jones lite. Brendan Fraser also scored a second top five movie this weekend, with the fifth-place 3-D extravaganza Journey to the Center of the Earth ($6.875 million, with a quiet but impressive $73 million domestic take).

Liv Tyler, earlier this summer, was all over the box office charts thanks to both The Incredible Hulk and The Strangers, but she’s trumped by Brendan Fraser’s box office muscle and chiseled abs.

Bruce Wayne is $314 million dollars richer.

The Dark Knight is the fastest movie to break $100 million dollars, $200 million dollars, and $300 million dollars. It is the largest opening weekend in history. It has the largest 10-day opening in history. Most importantly, Christopher Nolan’s dark superhero tale has a legitimate chance to pass the horribly cloying Titanic as the top film of all time at the box office.

Read all about it in this week’s box office report. Heath Ledger’s death has a lot to do with this, let’s not kid ourselves; however, even if he was still alive, this movie would have still been huge. After all, it’s Batman and The Joker. Everyone knows their history.

The Dark Knight Kicks Ass, Both At The Box Office And At Family Reunions

At least when it comes to opening on more screens, making the most money in a 3-day weekend in history, being the fastest film to $100 million dollars, and having its star arrested in the middle of doing promotion for said film, nothing tops Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight.

Apparently, while Wesley Willis can whip Batman’s ass, Batman can whip the asses of his mother and sister. I can only hope, before allegedly assaulting his family members, Christian Bale first gave them a lesson on Huey Lewis and the News. When he makes bail, I imagine Mr. Bateman will have a lot of videos to return.

The Dark Knight (2008) Review

The Dark Knight is quite possibly the most hyped film of the year, thanks to the death of Heath Ledger. As it turns out, the second of Christopher Nolan’s Batman films might also be the best film of the year as well. Check out my comprehensive review at Den of Geek.

Honestly, this movie was so good writing the review was practically impossible. It’s so much easier to shred a movie for being bad, but when a movie is so great I have absolutely nothing to complain about? There’s nothing harder than that. I even tried to think of one thing to bitch about, but I had nothing! This might be the best comic book movie of all time. (Yes, better than X-Men 2, Spider-Man 2, and even Iron Man.)

Tasteless Jokes About Heath Ledger

I’ve already made my serious commentary on Heath Ledger, but I just can’t hold back anymore. So for those of you who are as sick as I am, there’s gonna be some funny ahead. If you’re not as sick as I am, or can’t appreciate wholly inappropriate jokes, by all means go here and enjoy some LOLcats.

1. First, Brad Renfro died. Then Heath Ledger. Somewhere, Edward Furlong is hiding under his bed with a shotgun,
waiting for Robert Patrick to come after him to try and finish the job.

2a. This is why you don’t go bragging about your apartment to Patrick Bateman.

2b. Christian Bale is a method actor, too.

3. Looks like Heath finally found a way to quit Jake Gyllenhaal.

4. Poor Heath Ledger is just another one of pneumonia’s famous victims, alongside folks like Charles Nelson Reilly and the incredibly heterosexual Freddie Mercury. Looks like Ennis should’ve worn his rubbers up there on Brokeback Mountain.

Seriously, a 28-year-old who is otherwise healthy doesn’t die of pnumonia. This isn’t 1919. He fucked up, mixed his drugs, and overdosed. That’s all there is to it. It’s a shame, but like I’ve always said: Doing drugs doesn’t kill you, mixing drugs kills you. Antidepressants and sleeping pills; sleeping pills and cocaine; or maybe just sleeping pills and NyQuil. Either way, that’s why you don’t mix and match your medication, kids.