July 23, 2012 by Vinnie Leduc
Despite nearly a three-hour running time and the Colorado theater tragedy, The Dark Knight Rises scored the highest debut ever for a 2D movie at the domestic box office last weekend. After opening with the second highest midnight grosses of all time behind the final Harry Potter movie, Christopher Nolan’s trilogy conclusion to his reboot of DC Comics’ most popular comic books hero ultimately finished with the third highest opening of all time, behind historic champ The Avengers and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2.
Our choice for the most anticipated movie of the year, The Dark Knight Rises‘ chances to eclipse The Avengers‘ opening record were already compromised by its long running time and lack of numbers-boosting 3D. The horrific massacre at a Colorado theater during a midnight screening then ensured that the Batman flick wouldn’t challenge Marvel’s team of superheroes in terms of box office opening numbers, which were withheld by studios until today out of respect for the victims.
Last week’s champ, Ice Age: Continental Drift, took a huge drop to second place. The Amazing Spider-Man dropped a place to third, Ted also dropped a place to fourth, and Brave also dropped a place to fifth to round out the top five, which you can check out below via BOM:
- The Dark Knight Rises — Weekend Gross: $160.9 million — Total Gross: $160.9 million (new)
- Ice Age: Continental Drift — Weekend Gross: $20.4 million — Total Gross: $88.8 million (#1 last week)
- The Amazing Spider-Man — Weekend Gross: $10.9 million — Total Gross: $228.6 million (#2 last week)
- Ted — Weekend Gross: $10.0 million — Total Gross: $180.4 million (#3 last week)
- Brave — Weekend Gross: $6.0 million — Total Gross: $208.8 million (#4 last week)
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