In a bit of continuation on the news that The Dark Knight Rises found $64 million in its second weekend (sixth all-time) at the box office, word has broken that the superhero blockbuster has struck it rich abroad as well. After ten days in full roll-out mode (eleven internationally,) the film has passed the $500 million milestone with over $537 million according to studio estimates released late Sunday afternoon.
This is pretty phenomenal and indicates that the film will have runaway success at the foreign box office above that of its predecessor, suggesting that DKR might be able to gross north of $1 billion worldwide. Furthermore, such a feat would undoubtedly rank the Christopher Nolan-directed film as Batman’s best performance to date which is something Warner Bros. might be able to hang its hat on in light of a diminished American footprint.
That occurrence would definitely be welcomed; however, success is generally measured in domestic box office dollars as the overseas revenue often gets cut down a number of times, making it far less valuable. With that in mind, we acknowledge that this was by far the most expensive Batman film to date at a price tag around $250 million which means overall profitability will likely be down from The Dark Knight.
The Dark Knight Rises currently ranks as the third highest grossing film on the 2012 domestic chart with $289.1 million. Simple extrapolation points to at least $400 million locally which would make it the first time in the history of cinema that the industry had three such efforts beyond that milestone (The Avengers and The Hunger Games did it as well.) While that may be sour grapes to some considering The Dark Knight did over $500 million, this is still a huge accomplishment for any feature film sequel or not.