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‘Dark Knight’ Breaks Weekend Record

dark_knight_joker-3923030After setting box office records for top midnight opening and top Friday sales, it shouldn’t be much of a surprise that The Dark Knight broke the weekend record set by Spider-Man 3.

Sunday’s tallies showed The Dark Knight, the sequel to Batman Begins, hauled in $155.34 million for the weekend, according to the Associated Press. That tops Spider-Man 3 and its $151.1 million take.

The new Batman also bested Spidey’s IMAX debut, $6.2 million to $4.7 million.

The opening day grosses for “The Dark Knight” far exceeded the full weekend haul of its predecessor, “Batman Begins,” which took in $48.7 million in its first three days in 2005. …

“We’ve really never seen anything like this,” said Paul Dergarabedian, president of box-office tracker Media By Numbers. “The death of a fine actor taken in his prime, a legendary performance and a movie that lives up to all the hype. That all combined to create these record-breaking numbers.”

I finally caught a showing Saturday morning, which still nearly sold out. That might be the most applause I’ve heard at a theater yet, with the most coming somewhat surprisingly for Jim Gordon.


From Glenn H.

Media By Numbers’ OFFICIAL DARK KNIGHT RECORDS SO FAR (in order of occurrence):

1 – Largest Number Of Opening Theatres with 4,366 (More Than The 4,362 Debut Theatres Of Pirates Of The Caribbean: At World’s End in 2007).

2 – Biggest Midnight Preview Gross with $18.489 million in 3,040 Theatres (Beats Star Wars Episode III: Revenge Of The Sith And Its $16.9 million in 2,915 Theatres in 2005).

3 – Biggest Imax Midnight Previews set a new record with $640,000 (Included in The $18.489 million Preview Number).

4 – Biggest Single-Day Gross in Box-Office History with $67.850 million (Bests The $59,841,919 set by Spider-Man 3 in 2007).

5 – Biggest Opening Weekend Gross in Box Office History with $155.340 million (Bests The $151,116 million set by Spider-Man 3 in 2007).

6 – Biggest Opening Weekend Gross For An Imax Release in Box Office History with $6,214,061 million in 94 Theatres With $66,107 Per Theatre. (Bests The $4.7 million set by Spider-Man 3 in 2007.) Imax Showing At Full Capacity $1.9 million On Saturday Alone.

7 – Biggest Opening Weekend Of 2008 with $151.340 (Beats Indiana Jones And The Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull‘s $101.137 million From May 23-25, 2008)

8 – Biggest July Opening Ever (Beats Pirates Of The Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest‘s $135,634,554 On July 7, 2006).

Interview: Wil Wheaton on Webcomics, Publishing and Tech (Part 2)

wilwheatoncu-1533902Previously on ComicMix, I brought you the first part of my interview with writer, actor and publisher Wil Wheaton. In that part, we discussed topics including his feelings about modern comics and comic-book movies, his acting career, his love of writing and, most importantly, what he likes to order for lunch.

In the second part of my interview, we spend a bit more time discussing the craft of writing, personal publishing, his preferences in technology and the sometimes unpredictable nature of an Internet audience.

COMICMIX: Let’s change gears for a minute, Wil. You’re a pretty well-respected technology guy, and I know you’re a Mac user. How long has that been going on?

WIL WHEATON: I was one of the earliest Mac adopters. I had a Mac 128K in the first few months of its release. I loved it. I wish I could find, I key-noted at Mac World a few years ago, and both my notes and my address are gone. I don’t know where they went. 

Ironically, I wrote them on a Linux machine and I think that I may have just inadvertently lost them. But I loved that computer. It was portable, which is funny to say now, because it only weighed like, 20-30 pounds. It had a handle on the top, so clearly, it was portable.

CMix:  Did you ever have a clone?

WW:  No. I wouldn’t consider myself a Mac cultist or an Apple cultist. There’s still stuff they do that I don’t like and I don’t really have brand loyalty. I have brand anti-loyalty, though. I’ll never buy a Sony product… ever. (more…)

We Will Think For You, by Mike Gold

Here’s what I don’t like about politicians.

Well, actually, even Bill Gates doesn’t have the bandwidth to list all the things I don’t like about politicians – although I’m sure listing it all would generate some great comments. But here’s what’s at the top of my list.

Politicians who are partisan by definition feel completely comfortable speaking on behalf of the entire American public. Not just those of their political persuasion – which would be presumptuous – but everybody. Which is anti-democratic and pro-demagoguery.

Case in point: The Obama campaign felt compelled to issue a statement regarding cartoonist Barry Blitt’s cover to last week’s New Yorker magazine. The artwork speaks for itself, and is represented herewith. Entitled “The Politics of Fear,” the piece is supposed to be a satire of, well, the politics of fear as applied against the Obama campaign.

But the Obama campaign believes we’re too stupid to get it and feels compelled to pass moral judgment on behalf of us dolts. Their spokesman Bill Burton said “The New Yorker may think, as one of their staff explained to us, that their cover is a satirical lampoon of the caricature Sen. Obama’s right-wing critics have tried to create. But most readers will see it as tasteless and offensive. And we agree.” 


Never on to miss an opportunity to stick their right-wing noses in the air, McCain spokesman Tucker Bounds rose to the challenge with “We completely agree with the Obama campaign. It’s tasteless and offensive.”
(more…)

ComicMix Columns & Features for the Week Ending July 20, 2008

With Dark Knight blowing all other movie premieres out of the water, comics continue to be front and center in the public consciousness. What better way to celebrate that than being a part of the hottest ticket around? ComicMix contributors will be at San Diego (headquartered at Insight Studios’ booth #3208) along with many of you; stop by and say hi to many of the luminaries listed below! Here’s what we’ve had for you this past week:

Have a great time out west, everyone who’s going!

New Vertigo Blog

air1-3556601Vertigo junkies will be happy to know a group of the DC imprint’s creators have joined together — not unlike Voltron — on a blog.

Standard Attrition is the new blogging home for Jason Aaron, Brian Wood, G. Willow Wilson, Jock, Cliff Chiang, David Lapham and Brian Azzarello.

So far, the site has mostly just news on the group’s individual projects and media appearances. There’s also some news about what they’ll be doing at San Diego this coming week.

If you’re curious, that’s the cover to Wilson’s Air, which debuts from Vertigo next month.

(via The Beat)

The Dark Knight Project

What do you do when you desperately want to make a Batman movie, except you have little film-making experience and Warner Bros. doesn’t know you exist?

Well, you just go right ahead and make a Batman movie. At least that’s the thought of Jerry Vasilatos, a Chicago director. He decided to create The Dark Knight Project, essentially a fan movie set between the two new Batman films.

The story follows some Gotham students who try to get video footage of their city’s new vigilante. The expected trouble ensues, as Joker’s gang starts to cause problems.

You can watch the film right here. You can also read quite a bit on the background of the project at Vasilatos’ blog, which is right here.

That "other" Batman movie opened this weekend.

(via Doomkopf)

Native Americans in Comic Books

Michael Sheyahshe has a new book that features interviews with ComicMix creators Tim Truman and John Ostrander and explores the role of Native Americans in comics.

According to the website for the book:

Native Americans in Comic Books, published by McFarland Publishing, is a unique study and critique of the way in which we Indigenous people are represented in the popular medium of comic books. This work takes an in-depth look at the world of comic books through the eyes of a Native American reader and offers frank commentary on the medium’s cultural representation.

 

Comic Books You Can Hear

You make no excuses that you’re a superhero fan. You buy your weekly stack of comics. You watch the blockbuster movies. You tune in to the TV shows. How can you possibly cram more superhero adventure in your life? Audiobooks. You can listen to comics while commuting, driving, or walking. (We’re not going to list exercising. We’re talking about fanboys here, after all.)

I just happened on GraphicAudio.net and figured it was worth mentioning here, as the company offers DC Comics based audio adventures and the tagline “A movie in your mind.” The recordings feature full cast, special effects, and musical score. They’re available as an audio CD, an MP3 CD, or as a digital download. They even adapt massive events like 52 and Infinite Crisis.

There are currently seven recordings available:

  • 52: Part 1
  • 52: Part 2
  • Batman: The Stone King
  • Infinite Crisis: Part 1
  • Infinite Crisis: Part 2
  • JLA: Exterminators
  • Superman: The Never Ending Battle

While I lightly mocked fans who buy these, I have to confess, I own the BBC audio adaptations of Batman: Knightfall and The Death and Life of Superman. And I loved them. Anyone know how to convert cassettes into MP3s?

Video: Batman Needs to Calm Down With the ‘Dark Knight’ Stuff

Leave it to the folks at Cracked.com to create a Dark Knight-inspired video that includes Jim Gordon telling Batman, "You’ve apprehended 13 people over the past week for loitering and 12 of them were hauled into the station with poop in their pants. Actual poop!"

And it just gets getter (or worse, depending on your perspective) from there:

 

Dan Abnett’s Top 10 Movies

Just stumbled across this on the blog of writer Dan Abnett, who’s been doing a hellaciously good job on Nova and, to a slightly lesser extent, the new Guardians of the Galaxy.

Here are his top 10 favorite movies of all time, with a surprise atop the list:

1) Singin’ in the Rain
2) Casablanca
3) Some Like it Hot
4) This is Spinal Tap
5) A Matter of Life and Death
6) The Empire Strikes Back
7) A Canterbury Tale
8) One Million Years BC
9) Ferris Bueller’s Day Off
10) The Magnificent Seven

I can only wonder if that top choice had some influence on the cover of Nova #13 seen at right, wherein Richard Ryder and the Silver Surfer appear to be engaging in some intergalactic tango.