A quick search using Google and the internet reminds me that the first Batman film helmed by Tim Burton and starring Michael Keaton as the Caped Crusader pulled in over $40 million in its opening weekend and eventually went on to gross more than $400 million in box office ticket sales worldwide. Adjusted for inflation, Batman is the 20th highest grossing movie of all time.
Back then, lining up early for the summer blockbuster was expected, and I think even early ticket sales days before the movie opened was a somewhat novel thing when Batman came out. The lines in the mall to see Batman that first day it opened were excruciatingly long, and I think I was in the queue for at least a couple of hours. Crazy what we did back then to see a hotly anticipated movie. I still remember drawing bat signals on just about anything and everything on the weeks and days leading up to it.
Now we can simply buy tickets online, but it's nice to see some of the hysteria to see a movie first still exists. Some of this has been in the form of the midnight opening. Leave it to the newest installment of Batman, The Dark Knight, to really drive fans into a frenzy. From NYT:
In a frenzy, fans have bought so many late-night tickets for the July 18 opening of the next Batman movie that theaters in places like San Diego, Chicago, and even Eagan, Minn., are scheduling 6 a.m. screenings for those who can’t get in at midnight or 3 in the morning.I don't know what $40 million in late 80's U.S. dollars amounts to today if you adjusted it for inflation, but I imagine it's a lot. If this movie doesn't break some kind of opening weekend record, I'm really going to be surprised.
1 comment:
I was first in line to see Star Wars Episode I in Armadillo. When my partner came to spell me so I could go to work for a few hours he ended up getting all the credit when the news crews arrived around 8 am. Heck I was there at 5 am.
I did make it on the news though for the midnight shopping spree at Toys R Us when they re-released the toys.
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