Hugh Hart in the Wired blog Underwire reports Dark Knight has become Warner Bros. license to print money. It will soon knock off the venerable Star Wars as the No. 2 all-time grosser. This blockbuster with legs appeals to our desire to look at the dark side, featuring an Oscar-worthy starturn by Heath Ledger as the Joker. It's a superhero film with a tone that frightens.
How much of what we see onscreen when we look at the Joker is actually what resides in our own interior?
Here's the exceprt from Wired's Underwire:
"Despite a healthy $12 million opening Wednesday, Pineapple Express went down in smoke over the weekend with a $22 million gross that failed to nudge The Dark Knight out of the top slot.
The first movie since 2003's Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King to win the box office four weekends in a row, Warner Bros.' Batman-Joker epic took in another $26 million last weekend.
That pushes the film's domestic total to $441 million. Surpassing Shrek 2, The Dark Knight is expected to topple current No. 2 all-time grosser Star Wars ($461 million) by next weekend.
Paul Dergarabedian of Media by Numbers tells Wired.com: "For a movie to make this much money, this fast, is unprecedented." Dergarabedian credits Dark Knight's sustained momentum to the fact that "it actually lives up to the hype.""