Editorial - The Dark Knight: A Phenomenon without Rules, A Success of Anarchy and a Money load of Chaos

As I sit here writing this editorial, The Dark Knight has now become the second highest grossing film in American Box office History behind Titanic’s $600 million haul from 1997, with its total currently at around $502 million dollars and possibly going higher, it’s destroyed Iron Man and Indy IV to become the years highest grossing film, but there’s one question some of you are probably asking: Why and How is it making all this money?

Well, in my book there are three main reasons the movie has done the business it has, first off for better or worse is Heath Ledger’s performance as the Joker, ever since his tragic and unexpected death in January, the media have made a firestorm about his role in the film and ever since Peter Travers, the film critic of Rolling Stone magazine posted his review saying Ledger should receive a posthumous Oscar for his work, many people who normally wouldn’t see the film have flocked to do so (and trust me, the screening in Mt. Gambier I attended was PACKED, with people coming in droves).

Another would definitely have to be the brilliant marketing campaign; the trailers and the posters created for the film brilliantly captured the films spirit and also the very impressive viral marketing with such sites as gothamcablenews.com and thehahahatimes.com also giving fans more about the film, both Warner Brothers and Christopher Nolan deserve major applause for the marketing of the film.

And last but definitely not least, the movie itself has become the movie event that not only Batman fans but also movie fans have been waiting for, yes folks the film itself is actually that good, my opinion of the film has been covered elsewhere but I also want to add that this could very well be the movie event of the decade.

So there you go folks, three reasons why I feel The Dark Knight has become the success it has, and on one last note: huge congratulations to all involved for making this happen and as for Heath, well a sincere thank you on behalf of the world audience for putting a smile on our face.