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As “The Dark Knight” took off overseas, Warner Bros. Pictures International became the third major international distributor to surpass $1 billion in foreign boxoffice revenue.

This is the eighth year in a row and the 10th time overall that WBPI has hurdled the industry benchmark.

Warner Bros. said that the Caped Crusader’s opening blast of $40 million from only 20 markets “pushed” the company “over the $1 billion mark in international boxoffice.”

Overcoming the disappointing performance of its early summer tentpole, “Speed Racer,” the company’s other summer releases — the newest Batman entry, “Get Smart” ($65 million) and returns from key selected markets of New Line’s “Sex and the City” — made up for the let down.

Strong contributions came earlier in the year from “I Am Legend” ($210 million in 2008 for total of $328 million), “10,000 BC” ($174 million), “Sweeney Todd” ($100 million), “The Bucket List” ($81 million), and the German film “Keinorhasen,” which took in $49 million in 2008 for a total of $63.5 million.

Paramount Pictures International passed the $1 billion benchmark June 16 and Fox International followed July 8.

Last year, for the first time in industry history, five of the six MPA companies topped $1 billion by the end of July; a sixth studio joined by the end of 2007.

Source:Hollywood Reporter

HEATH LEDGER deserves all the credit for THE DARK KNIGHT’s massive box office haul, according to the movie’s director CHRISTOPHER NOLAN.
Ledger plays The Joker in the movie, the last full film role he completed before his death in January (08) from an accidental drug overdose. And Nolan insists Ledger made the movie a hit.
Speaking at The Dark Knight’s Japanese premiere on Monday (28Jul08), the British filmmaker said, “(He was) what The Joker in our film would need to be.
“(We were) looking for an actor with the fierceness, excitement and teeth to do our version of the Joker.”
Christian Bale, who plays Batman in the record-breaking film, also found time to praise Ledger, telling a press conference, “It’s satisfying to see people celebrating the incredible talent of Heath. I just want him to be recognised.”
In just 10 days since the film’s release in America, The Dark Knight has taken an astonishing $440 million (GBP150 million) at movie theatres worldwide, breaking almost every box office record in the U.S.

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Christian Bale

His blockbuster film The Dark Knight is obliterating box office records, but Christian Bale says the tally is secondary to the audience’s enthusiastic embrace of his late costar Heath Ledger.

“It’s satisfying to see people celebrating the incredible talent of Heath,” Bale said of Ledger’s performance as the villainous Joker. “I just want him to be recognized.”

While the film has earned $300 million in just 10 days, “I would have been happy with this movie even if it hadn’t broken so many box office records,” Bale told audience members at the film’s Tokyo premiere Monday. “I’m used to being in movies that five people go to!”

Adding that The Dark Knight “really raised the bar,” Bale was quick to point out that much of the success was due to Ledger.

Director Christopher Nolan added that Ledger was “what the Joker in our film would need to be.”

“[We were] looking for an actor with the fierceness, excitement and teeth to do our version of the Joker,” Nolan continued. “It’s very different.”

Bale deflected a question about how he’s been holding up since his London arrest, explaining “The fans are not here for me. They’re here for the movie. It speaks for itself.”

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Added 3 more Joker wallpapers to the gallery Enjoy them.

HOLLYWOOD — A driving portion of the Bat Fever that has followed the release of The Dark Knight can be attributed to Heath Ledger’s fearless/terrifying portrayal of The Joker.

Even with the considerable buzz leading up to the release of the movie, few were prepared for the commanding disappearing act that was Ledger’s performance.

Understandably, Academy Awards talk has begun in earnest. While a nomination is an absolute shoo-in, there’s a growing consensus that a win is likely in the cards.

If so, it would be the first time an Oscar was awarded posthumously since 1977, when the late Peter Finch (playing a raging “I’m as mad as hell and I’m not going to take it anymore” TV commentator in Network) won a Best Actor statuette.

He had died of a heart attack two months prior to the telecast.

Finch was the first and, to date, only person awarded an Oscar posthumously. Should Ledger’s performance go the distance, the actors have some other things in common:

In addition to both hailing from Australia, their only prior Oscar noms were for playing gay characters — Ledger in Brokeback Mountain and Finch in Sunday, Bloody Sunday.

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Batman star Christian Bale’s arrest over an alleged assault on his mother and sister may have been linked to a build-up of stress and grief over the loss of his friend Heath Ledger.

Sources told Britain’s Daily Mail that Bale had been deeply affected by the Australian actor’s death from an accidental overdose, and that Ledger’s loss had affected Bale’s ability to communicate with those around him.

Bale, who plays Batman in The Dark Knight, was arrested and bailed over the alleged assault yesterday, after he spent four hours at a London police station.

Bale lost his temper in a London hotel room after his mother allegedly insulted his wife, the Mail report said.

Bale and Ledger, who plays a maniacal Joker in the latest Batman flick, became mates when they both played Bob Dylan in the 2007 movie I’m Not There.

An unnamed friend told the Mail: “Christian pretends he’s calm and collected but you really started to see the cracks in his facade in January, right after Heath Ledger had died.

“Christian was in the middle of a very brief break from work when he heard the news, and it was massive blow to him.

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Show your desktop some love, here are some 1027×768 wallpapers.

Came across this and thought I would share it with the DK Fans Enjoy!

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According to a Fandango.com poll conducted this weekend, 64 percent of people who saw The Dark Knight would see it again in the theater, making it even more impossible for the rest of us to see it just once. THANKS A LOT.

The movie I saw the most in a theater was American Beauty. I was a freshman in college and terrified that I wouldn’t make any friends, so I just kept saying yes to new people who wanted to go. (Um, there was a Ground Round right next to the theater and we inexplicably went there, too.) I think I saw it four times, maybe seven. Since 1999, I’ve spoken to those movie companions zero times, yet almost always watch part or all of American Beauty when it’s on HBO even though I’m sick of it by now. Priorities, I guess. You know what those dorm mates would say to me today? “It’s okay, Annie. I wouldn’t remember me either.” JK people!

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