The Dark Knight Sets Home Video Record for 2008

[goldenfist]

Add another record for The Dark Knight.

According to Variety and to little surprise, the film will be the top home video release of 2008. During the first week of release of The Dark Knight on DVD and Blu-ray, it sold over 13.5 million copies, worldwide.

Breaking the number down, the total sales include over 1.7 million Blu-ray discs, making it the top-selling Blu-ray disc; and 10 million copies going to consumers, with the remainder going to rental outlets. 3 million copies were sold on December 9th, the first day of release – 600,000 of those were Blu-ray.

Taking this data, Warner Bros. is projecting that The Dark Knight will be the best-selling 2008 home video title.

Despite the impressive number of copies sold on its first day of release, Batman ultimately loses out to a clownfish and his dad for the record – in 2003, Finding Nemo sold 8 million copies on its first day of release. Comparing to this year’s other big superhero movie, Iron Man sold 260,000 Blu-ray discs on its first day of release, and a total of 500,000 Blu-rays discs in its first week of release.

Despite the massive sales of both The Dark Knight, Iron Man and other summer blockbusters on Blu-ray and DVD, the home video market is down from 2007, with DVD sales being particularly soft, although Blu-ray is making inroads in total sales.

The Dark Knight will return to theaters and IMAX on January 23rd, a move which will bring its box office total to over $1 billion.

[starfoxxx]

I finally watched it, and I wasn't blown away. I don't see what all the hype was, except for Ledger's excellent take on the Joker. The gruff Batman voice is almost laughable, the Two-face storyline was tedious (great make-up/FX, though), and Batman's toughest opponents are------TWO DOGS! I know I sound like a hater, but IMHO, Iron Man blew Dark Knight out of the water!


Also, (a nit-pick) I understand that the hospital bombing was supposed to occur in ANY of Gotham City's hospital's, but I had always assumed that GOTHAM Hospital would be located in the city. The hospital the Joker blows up seems to be out in the suburbs somewhere.

[goldenfist]

Really?

Well which movie made the most money....It was Dark Knight and
it was a great movie better than Iron Man.

[Tana Nile]

I also enjoyed Iron Man more than Dark Knight, which was indeed an exceedingly dark film.

And I don't think the amount of money a film makes is necessarily any indication of its quality. Titanic is the highest grossing film of all time - is it the best movie ever made?

[dlw66]

Concerning the amount of money any film makes -- it's really a fallacy. Gross ticket sales should be the only true indicator, as the average Joe probably wouldn't grasp equations which would adjust older/modern ticket prices for inflation. Saying that, I believe I read this past summer (when it became clear that Dark Knight was going to give the all-timers a run) that Gone With the Wind is WAY out in front in terms of adjusted sales or total tickets (can't recall which is the quoted statistic).

And Starfoxxx, the hospital that was blown up was in Chicago, but on the outskirts of town as you suggested. By the way, the tunnel through which Batman rides the Batpod -- we use that very train station every time we disembark in the city. It is the Randolph Street Station, right across Michigan Avenue from Millenium Park.

[spiderwasp]

Jan 19, 2009 16:55:10 GMT -5 goldenfist said:

Really?

Well which movie made the most money.... .

Wow. That is the most irrelevant factor I can possibly think of when determining the quality of a movie. I guess by your logic Home Alone, How the Grinch Stole Christmas, Austin Powers, and all three Pirates of the Carribean movies are better movies than Silence of the Lambs, Rain Man, Chicago, or One Flew Over The Cuckoos Nest. They all made more money. I'm glad you aren't a voting member of the academy.

And for the record, I also thought Iron Man was a better movie. I liked Dark Knight but wasn't nearly as impressed as the critics tell me I should have been.

[goldenfist]

Go to any comic con convention they said Dark Knight was the
better movie.

I liked Iron Man but Dark Knight was WAYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY
MUCH BETTER.

[spiderwasp]

Jan 20, 2009 0:34:14 GMT -5 goldenfist said:

Go to any comic con convention they said Dark Knight was the
better movie.

You don't usually seem to have so much trouble with the concept of opinion. No matter how much "Evidence" you throw out, people who think Ironman was better will still think it because terms such as better and worse are subjective opinions. Why is so difficult to accept that there are people who disagree with the majority on this? Does that make their opinions less valid because more people see it the other way? I haven't seen anyone try to contradict the clear evidence that more people prefer Dark Knight to Ironman but that doesn't make it a universally accepted truth. Besides, I would like to think that even at a comic con convention, not everyone would agree. I've never been to one but if everyone thinks alike at them, I don't want to go. I've never much cared for mindless assimilation.

[dlw66]

Not sure why I couldn't have liked both of them. In spite of them both being superhero movies, the tone of each was so different.

[Shiryu]

Count me among those who liked Iron-Man much more than DK (but I concede that, since earnings are their first target, DK was probably more succesfull).

In fact, I liked Batman Begins much more than DK too, there was a glimmer of hope in the dark there.

[goldenfist]

I just liked it way better than Iron Man and one time I watched
comic con on G4 fans were asked which was better and they said
the Dark Knight.

When one fan said Iron Man all the others said yeah right.