The Dark Knight is an excellent film. Christopher Nolan has essentially made a modern Godfather or Heat staring Batman and the Joker. It is an intelligent film that doesn’t feel the need to spoon feed information to the audience. It deals with complex issues: Duality, justice, morality, terror. All while being confident that the audience is right there along for the ride and capturing every nuance. But this post isn’t just to praise The Dark Knight, rather to talk about the elephant in the room that no one seems to be acknowledging.
The Dark Knight has enjoyed an incredible level of success. Its theatrical run made over $500 billion making it the second highest grossing film ever (behind Titanic). The DVD release on Tuesday is doing equally well. The Dark Knight sold 600,000 Blu-Ray discs making it the highest selling Blu-Ray to date. Add that number to the total standard DVDs sold and you’re looking at 3 million copies of The Dark Knight moving in a single day. But all of the reporting around this event contrasts the performance of The Dark Knight against a waning box office, and DVD sales that are down overall 6%.
To me, this reporting is ignoring a fact that seems to be apparent to everyone not worried about the bottom line: If a movie is good, it will do well. In my opinion The Dark Knight is a shining example of how a well crafted film is something that people still want to experience, both theatrically and at home. I would contend that the box office decline (even though it was actually up this year) is not driven by home theaters or video games, but rather the fact that there’s not much to see. Likewise, a dip in DVD sales is not indicative that the DVD wave is over and people have moved on to some other content provider, but rather because there aren’t any new DVDs of value to buy.
It seems to me that if a studio and filmmaker treats the audience with a little respect from a storytelling perspective, then the audience will respond. Gone are the days where studios could take a mediocre movie (or even a bad one) and turn it into a profitable film with a clever, well targeted marketing campaign. People are too connected now. Someone in line for a 7:30 show has already been texted by his buddy that just got out of the 5:00 show saying the movie is a waste of time. Message boards, e-mail, blogs, etc. are now ubiquitous and cut through marketing like a knife. But a smart movie with a good script, is a pile of gold.
Not to say that every movie made has to have the brilliant complexity of The Dark Knight, or the emotional heart of Wall-E. I laughed all the way through the new Get Smart, and felt that it was a comedy that was aimed at an intelligent audience. It didn’t rely of flatulence jokes, instead choosing to elevate its comedy to a higher level.
Incidentally, it did quite well at the box office and on DVD.
Christopher Johnson, Director, Easy Water Films, L.L.C.