p2pnet news view | Movies:- More than half a billion dollars for one movie?

It’s obscene. That’d keep many a small nation afloat.

But that’s what the latest Batman flick, Dark Knight, has hauled in to date.

Yesterday, it became the second movie in Hollywood history to top $500 million at the domestic box office, “raising its total to $502.4 million, according to estimates from distributor Warner Bros,” says the Associated Press.

The film did that in a little more than six weeks, “half the time it took ‘Titanic,’ which reached $500 million in a little more than three months,” it says, adding Titanic, the “biggest modern blockbuster,”  is sitll No 1 with $600.8 million.

“Time Warner, Viacom, Fox, Sony, NBC Universal and Disney, aka Hollywood with the MPAA (Motion Picture Association of America) as their mouthiece, have bought and paid for significant numbers of US politicians,” p2pnet said in July.

So, “it’s no surprise to find MPAA boss Dan Glickman spouting about the need for “intellectual property protections” and the, “importance of bipartisanship” to “improve public policy,” not to mention a requirement for, “Washington legislators to traverse party lines, even during the partisan presidential election season,” we said, adding:

“In other words, doesn’t matter what’s happening, vested corporate copyright interests come first. If you don’t believe it, just look at the, ‘record-breaking box office success of The Dark Knight from last weekend,’ suggests Glickman.”

In truth, though, Dark Knight wasn’t up to much beyond the late Heath Ledger’s amazing performance as The Joker.

In another demonstration of the power of Hollywood Hype, on the first weekend, the movie hauled in $158.4 million!

But, “Batman’s reign will probably end this weekend with release of ‘Pineapple Express’,” reckins MTV, giving these stats:

#1 “The Dark Knight” ($43.8 million)
#2 “The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor” ($42.5 million)
#3 “Step Brothers” ($16.3 million)
#4 “Mamma Mia!” ($13.1 million)
#5 “Journey to the Center of the Earth” ($6.9 million)

And yet Hollywood’s MPAA uses the movie and music businesses’ favourite word to describe its condition:

“Devastated”.

Riiiight.

Associated Press – ‘Dark Knight’ swings past $500 million mark, September 1, 2008
p2pnet – MPAA, Batman, and US politics, July 23, 2008
$158.4 million – New Batman breaks box-office record, July 22, 2008
MTV – ‘Dark Knight’ Thumps ‘The Mummy,’ Rules Box Office For Third Week

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This entry was posted on Monday, September 1st, 2008 at 9:23 am and is filed under Movies. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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