The Dark Knight Rises Set for $150 Million (119.1 Million) Opening

That Chris Nolan's “The Dark Knight Rises” is one of the most anticipated releases of the year must be a secret to absolutely no one. However, whether it will also become the biggest box office hit of the year is an entirely different matter.

In May, Marvel's “The Avengers” came out, shattering all previous box office records for the opening weekend, with ticket sales of no less than $207 million (€164.4 million).

It's with this particular film that TDKR runs in competition, and odds are it might just beat it, a recent report in the Los Angeles Times says.

Tracking for TDKR shows that it stands great chances of opening at $150 million (€119.1 million), which would be amazing, but still short of “The Avengers'” feat.

Interest in Nolan's film, which is the third and final Batman installment is high: this is arguably one of the most anticipated releases of the past couple of years, not just of 2012.

However, there are some things going against TDKR, which might eventually prevent it from taking down “The Avengers.”

For starters, this isn't a 3D movie, so there will be no premium tickets, whereas “The Avengers” was. In other words, more people will have to see TDKR to compensate for that.

Secondly, Nolan's film is longer than Marvel's box office hit by about 20 minutes. Reason dictates that this too works against a film in the long run because the longer the film, the fewer screenings can be fit into a single day.

Thirdly, “The Avengers” came out in May when it had absolutely no direct competitor, while Batman will go up against “The Amazing Spider-Man,” “Ice Age” and even “The Bourne Legacy.”

To put it differently, even if it doesn't beat “The Avengers,” TDKR will probably still “win” because it will not have used any gimmicks that are currently employed regularly in modern cinematography to boost profit.

Or we could just resume ourselves to saying that box office earning isn't a good reflection of moviegoers' tastes or a film's popularity.

Whichever that might be, the LA Times says TDKR is poised for greatness and, yes, an excellent profit as well.

“The two companies [Warner Bros. and Legendary Entertainment] spent roughly $250 million [€198.5 million] to produce the film, according to knowledgeable people not authorized to discuss the matter publicly,” the publication writes.

“Ultimately, 'The Dark Knight Rises' is well positioned to exceed the $1-billion [€794.3 million] worldwide box office total collected by 'The Dark Knight',” the same report notes.

“The Dark Knight Rises” will be out on July 20.

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