The Greatest Movie Ever Made (Or Something): Six Instant Implications of 'The Dark Knight'

The Dark Knight's record-breaking opening left us entranced by not only its tsunami of cash, but also by the news, commentary and other unclassifiable phenomena we spotted in its wake around the Web. For your Monday morning convenience, here's a glimpse at what the biggest three-day box-office weekend in history will get you:

1. All-Time Greatest Film on IMDB: Fanboys continue to make their voices heard this morning as nearly 50,000 voters pushed The Dark Knight to the top of IMDB's definitive list of international classics. Better even than The Shawshank Redemption, though? Well, these viewers have seen everything, so... congratulations, Christopher Nolan!

2. Backlash Begins (Critical Edition): Bad reviews (and the revolt that followed them) were one thing. But even DK admirers like us couldn't help but nod along as haters started poking the bubble:

FIlm critics were just as jazzed as the film's makers and its boyish fans, even proud to consider themselves part of the film's creation, in a way. "I think it's the critic's duty to tell people how awesome this movie is," said Insert-Pullquote Pete, of the Toulane Tribune. "Thank God there's finally a movie that audiences and critics can agree on, cause it makes our job so much easier."

3. Backlash Begins (Box-Office Edition): Citing figures that are in part "too clean," David Poland challenges the numbers and their historical importance. Not to be outdone, Variety this morning bumped the figure to $158 million just for the hell of it.

4. Oscar Hype Redux: Terry Gilliam be damned, Tom O'Neil is just doing his job this morning by recalculating DK's Oscar odds after its massive weekend: Only six the top 20 highest-grossing films of all time were nominated for Best Picture. "[T]hree won," writes O'Neil. "The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King, Titanic and Forrest Gump — and three got skunked: The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, E.T. and Star Wars." For what it's worth, none were reviewed as consistently favorably as The Dark Knight. And certainly none of them are IMDB's Greatest! Film! Ever!

5. Christopher Nolan is the New Peter Jackson. A 38-year-old guy who started out making $40,000 neo-noirs over a year's worth of weekends off is now the anchor of the hottest franchise in town. Just part of the plan, notes The Hollywood Reporter, which today features a good look at how he did it (not to mention the hell of following up — The Prisoner, Chris? Really?).

6. Mamma Mia! Gets Buried: The stage adaptation's $27.6 million opening was the best ever for a musical. IMDB Top 250 spot: Not ranked. Care much? Us neither.

Contact information for this author is not available.

Upload an image | Add an image URL ×

Image URL: ×

Youtube URL: ×

Choose a file to upload:

×

Dsmvwl  Admin  Promote to frontpage Approve user Ban user ×

Loading comments ...

Earlier discussions | Other discussions | Show all discussions | Show featured discussions only | Start a new discussion