With the opening of Christopher Nolan’s final Batman film, The Dark Knight Rises, now just 10 days away, the buzz in Hollywood among those who track interest in upcoming films indicates that, while it may not be able to top The Avengers’ mammoth $207.4 million, Nolan’s final Batpic will likely eclipse the $158.4 million opening of Nolan’s The Dark Knight and thus register the biggest domestic opening ever for a non-3D film.

 

Actually, according to The Hollywood Reporter, The Dark Knight Rises’ tracking numbers are very close to those registered by The Avengers ten days before its opening.  Unaided awareness for TDKR is 19 versus 20 for The Avengers, with definite interest in Nolan’s film at 65 compared with 66 for Whedon’s, and "first choice" status for the Batman movie at 30 versus 33 for the The Avengers.

 

With these kind of tracking numbers, what’s to keep The Dark Knight Rises from passing The Avengers?  Well, the fact that it’s not in 3-D means that it won’t be able to benefit from the higher 3-D ticket prices, though it will certainly gain from strong exposure in pricier IMAX venues, especially since Nolan shot over an hour’s worth of the TDKR with giant IMAX cameras, which means that IMAX theaters will be the best possible place to see the film.  Unfortunately for TDKR, there just aren’t a lot of IMAX venues yet.  

Another factor that will likely hurt TDKR’s opening weekend take is the film’s running time of 164 minutes (just 16 minutes short of 3 hours), which is 21 minutes longer than The Avengers and 12 minutes more than The Dark Knight.  The longer running time means few showings over the film’s opening day weekend.

 

But even if it can’t match The Avengers’ opening weekend total, The Dark Knight Rises is tracking as another of this year’s monster hits.  Other film’s like Sony’s The Amazing Spider-Man had better make their money now and then strap on some aqualungs, because it appears that Nolan’s final Batfilm will be sucking all the oxygen out the marketplace come July 20th.