EXHIBITION: Gross

The worldwide gross for The Dark Knight was $1,022,345,358 with $533,345,358 coming from the US. The International gross was $489,000,000 making it the 3rd movie in the US top films of all time and 5th in the worldwide top movies of all time.

The Dark Knight holds the record for the biggest opening weekend ever with a gross of $158,411,483 on the 7/18/2008.

MARKETING & DISTRIBUTION: Poster Campaigns

For The Dark Knight, there was a huge poster campaign in their marketing strategies. The original ideas were to focus the campaign on Batman itself but after the tragic death of Heath Ledger, the main focus of the film quickly switched to 'The Joker. There are so many character specific posters of The Joker, this hyped the movie up on a massive scale. Marketing started way back in the production stages of The Dark Knight so that mass audiences were aware of how massive this film would be.

Here are just a selection of the promotional and teaser posters:

PRODUCTION: Technology

For years Christopher Nolan had wanted to shoot a movie in IMAX format and believed The Dark Knight would be perfect for this new technology.

PRODUCTION: Finance

With The Dark Knight being a part of such a huge franchise, this film had to blow people's minds and live up to expectations, therefore the finance had to be of massive amounts. The budget for the film was $185,000,000 and is 18th in the world's biggest movie budgets.

PRODUCTION: Casting

The director of 'The Dark Knight' was Christopher Nolan. Nolan has directed nearly all of the Batman movies and has won various awards for his directing talents. As the Dark Knight was such a massive blockbuster, the casting was a huge part of the production process and took up a lot of time.

The main casting was done by a man called John Papsidera, mainly known for his casting and input in horror films. As the Dark Knight was such a hugely anticipated movie, the casting needed to be just right so not to dissapoint the fans.

The lead role of 'Bruce Wayne/Batman' went to Christian Bale who is a huge hollywood star, this meant that just by the casting choices the film would open up a wider audience.

The lead role of Batman was hugely upstaged by the supporting actor Heath Ledger who played 'The Joker.' John Papsidera took a risk by casting Ledger as he was a fairly unknown actor, but Nolan (director) insisted on using Heath Ledger. Ledger took the character of the 'The Joker' and made it his own, and to this day is named one of the most talented actor's this world has ever seen. He described his character as "psychopathic, mass murdering, schizophrenic clown with zero empathy." Unfortunately Heath Ledger passed away in an untimely and tragic death before 'The Dark Knight's' release. This has caused much controversy surrounding the film with people suggesting that Ledger had let his role of 'The Joker' take over his personal life. It was also suggested that the marketing of this movie used Heath's death for personal gain. Christopher Nolan decided to dedicate the film in Heath Ledger's honour and accepted a post-humous oscar for Ledger's incredible performance in The Dark Knight.

Casting Collective and Joan Philo Casting also worked on The Dark Knight to provide many extras. Once the casting had been finalised the initial shooting began.

PRODUCTION: Companies

The Dark Knight is one of the world's most successful movies of all time. It was hugely anticipated as the Batman sequel is a cult classic. The four main production companies involved with 'The Dark Knight' were DC Comics, Warner Bros Pictures, Syncopy and Legendary Pictures. Although Warner Bros Pictures were the main distributor of the film, as they are such a large and well-known company which would not only help with finance, but also the production methods. This is also an example of synergy and cross-promotion with DC Comics joining forces with Warner Bros. The production began on July 31st 2006 after a long and anticipated wait, however initial shooting did not take place until March 2007. Kevin De La Noy was the executive producer, who has also worked on films such as 'Titantic', 'Saving Private Ryan' and 'Mission Impossible'.