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‘Dark Knight’ (above) is soaring into record box office numbers, but ‘Titanic’ won’t sink from the No. 1 all-time spot in the near future.
It may not end up being the proverbial iceberg that sinks “Titanic” as the top-grossing movie of all time, but “The Dark Knight” still has shown a super-powered punch at the box office.
In the first 12 days since the film’s release, it has grossed $343 million, by far the fastest a film has gotten to that mark. Most industry experts believe that “The Dark Knight,” starring Christian Bale and the late Heath Ledger, will vault past “Star Wars” ($461 million) and eclipse the half-billion-dollar mark domestically before it leaves theaters. Holy pop culture phenomenon, Batman – in an entertainment era dominated by DVD players and high definition television, that’s a pretty impressive haul.
The sequel to the 2005 blockbuster “Batman Begins” almost tripled that movie’s opening day weekend with a record $158 million take. That means it wasn’t just comic book fans or teens or Ledger fans in the audience. It was almost everybody.
It’s a haul that also makes “Titanic’s” eye-popping totals of $600 million – almost $1.9 billion worldwide – that much more impressive.
Dan Fellman, head of distribution at Warner Bros., compares Titanic’s decade-long berth at the top to Joe DiMaggio‘s 56-game hitting streak in baseball: one of those records that’s almost impossible to break.
“I’m thrilled that we have the opportunity to maybe become the No. 2 movie of all time,” said Fellman. “We knew we had something very special, but we didn’t know how special it could be.”
Ten years later, ‘special’ also describes the perfect storm of factors that has made “Titanic” virtually unsinkable as the No. 1 all-time box office movie. Before its release on Dec. 19, 1997, there were rumblings in the industry that the movie would not break even with its massive production costs – reportedly $200 million. Delays related to the special effects had pushed back what was supposed to be a summer blockbuster six months. The three-hour running time meant fewer shows to sell tickets for.
Boy, were they wrong.
“That film is the greatest word of mouth film of all time,” says Paul Dergarabedian, president of Media By Numbers, a box office tracking firm. “The perfect storm proved to be the release date, the marketing campaign and the buzz.”
“Titanic” found that perfect mix – women viewers who swooned over the Leonardo DiCaprio–Kate Winslet love story and men who swooned over the CGI recreation of the doomed ocean-liner’s sinking. The film kept steaming at No. 1 for 15 straight weeks and was still open for business in theaters, when the Academy Awards rolled around. Director James Cameron was king of the world when the movie notched 11 Oscars. But the film was also a product of a different time, before DVDs or TiVo really caught on.
CLICKRY BABE
Posted on: August 12, 2008
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Though suing file-sharing sites has no effect on the proliferation of file sharing, the MPAA (Motion Picture Association of America)- and its lawers- sure feel better about themselves for doing it. However, there is a section of the film world that isn’t yet positioned to take organized legal action.
That’s right, the porn industry. Made up of a few well-established companies and who knows how many independent producers (and “producers”), porn production cannot really act collectively. However, one man is trying to change that.
Jason Tucker has formed the PAK Group, complete with a catchy mission statement (“committed to taking actino against thieves”) and logo. Unless you read the client list, you wouldn’t realize that the group focuses on protecting adult content.
The PAK Group was founded in September 2007 by a coalition of producers angry with the spread of piracy online. It originally set out to attack individual file-sharers online, much like the RIAA.
Tucker’s new target refers largely to the deluge of “tube” websites that have sprung up in the past few years: styled after the ever-so-popular YouTube, there are now hundreds of these sites offering free streaming video complete with search engines, indexed content, tagging, and in some cases even a download option. Much of their content, however, is pirated.
Source: dailytech.com
Hot Docs: Iraq Can’t Spend Its Oil Money, Raising the Retirement Age, and More
Posted on: August 6, 2008
Stabilizing and Rebuilding Iraq. A new Government Accountability Office report looks at Iraq’s spending patterns and its windfall oil revenues. The agency notes that Iraq’s government has run massive budget surpluses over the past two years and outlines some difficulties local officials have faced in trying to spend these funds on capital improvements.
Actuaries Advocate Raising Social Security’s Retirement Age. The American Academy of Actuaries recommends an immediate increase in the retirement age to help alleviate strain on the Social Security system. The professional organization attributes the crunch to an increase in longevity over the past several decades.
Screening for Prostate Cancer: U.S. Preventive Services Task Force Recommendation Statement. The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, an independent panel of experts convened under government auspices, issued new recommendations about who should be screened for prostate cancer. The new advice discourages screening for men over 75.
Kids’ Meals: Obesity on the Menu. The Center for Science in the Public Interest evaluates the nutritional content of children’s menus at 25 popular fast food and restaurant chains, finding, unsurprisingly, that many choices are high in calories, fat, and sodium.
One Year Progress Report: the Department’s Comprehensive National Security Oversight Initiative.
TEHRAN (Reuters) – Iran said on Saturday it would not back down “one iota” in its nuclear row with major powers, voicing defiance on the day of an informal deadline set by the West over Tehran’s disputed atomic ambitions.
Western officials gave Tehran two weeks from July 19 to respond to their offer to hold off from imposing more U.N. sanctions on Iran if it froze any expansion of its nuclear work.
That would suggest a deadline of Saturday but Iran, which has repeatedly ruled out curbing its nuclear activities, dismissed the idea of having two weeks to reply.
The West accuses Iran of seeking to build nuclear warheads under cover of a civilian power program. Iran, the world’s fourth-largest oil producer, denies the charge.
“In whichever negotiation we take part … it is unequivocally with the view to the realization of Iran’s nuclear right and the Iranian nation would not retreat one iota from its rights,” President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said.
He made the remark in a statement posted on the presidential website after talks with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
Assad visited Tehran a few weeks after he said in Paris he would respond to French President Nicolas Sarkozy’s request and use his good relations with the Islamic Republic to help resolve the nuclear stand-off.
The statement quoted the Syrian leader as saying that based on international agreements, all countries had the right to enrich uranium and have nuclear power stations. Continued…
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A massive search and rescue operation is under way in south-western China after one of the most powerful earthquakes in decades.
Troops have arrived in Wenchuan county at the epicentre, which was largely cut off by the quake – but heavy rain is hampering rescue operations.
Elsewhere in Sichuan province, frantic efforts are being made to reach thousands of people under the rubble.
The death toll is now more than 12,000, officials say, and looks set to rise.
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In one city, Mianyang, near the epicentre, more than 18,000 people are said to be buried under the rubble and 3,629 have been confirmed dead, state news agency Xinhua reports.
In the nearby town of Mianzhu, at least 4,800 people are trapped under the rubble and massive landslides have buried roads to outlying villages, Xinhua says.
Premier Wen Jiabao was quick to reach the scene and urged rescuers to clear roads into the worst-hit areas as fast as possible.
“As long as there is even a little hope, we will redouble our efforts 100 times and will never relax our efforts,” he told crying locals through a loudhailer in the badly hit Dujiangyan city, south-east of the epicentre.
The health ministry has made an urgent appeal for people to give blood to help the injured.
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