Warner Bros. is reportedly considering the cancellation of additional screenings (UPDATE: there will be no cancellations) of The Dark Knight Rises beyond the Paris premiere in the wake of the tragedy in Colorado. It would be a bold financial decision considering these studios generally operate on numbers alone and those from last night’s midnight screenings are quite large.
The Dark Knight Rises pulled in $30.6 million from last night’s midnight premiere of what is arguably the most anticipated film of the year. This number is second only to the $43.5 million made by Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 last July and just a tick over the $30 million made by The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 1 and the $30.3 million made by The Twilight Saga: Eclipse.
If you’re looking to compare to what The Avengers made on its way to its record-breaking $207.4 million earlier this year, it was only $18.7 million.
As of right now thoughts surrounding the box-office performance of The Dark Knight Rises are clearly secondary to the safety of people attending screenings and the eye-opening news from this morning. How it will affect the box-office and theater turn out is yet to be seen, but I must say, it would be hard to go to a screening and not at least be somewhat concerned as to what might happen and that is a terrible thing to have to admit.
[via Box Office Guru]
