Case Study: The Dark Knight

Year 12 Film6/12/13

Exam Questions

Why are cinemas still important for both audiences and producers?

‘The current revolution in technology is changing the way both producers and audiences think of film and the film experience.’ How far do you agree with this statement?

How far does the casting of particular actors contribute to the identity of your chosen production company?

Bear these exam questions in mind for the Dark Knight

Case Study!

Director: Christopher NolanWriters: Christopher Nolan, Jonathan Nolan, David S GoyerProducers: Christopher Nolan, Emma Thomas, Charles Roven.

The Dark Knight (Christopher Nolan, 2008, US)

History

The Dark knight is a film that exists as part of the Batman Universe. The Character of Batman was created by Bob Kane in 1939 for DC Comics and

has become on of the most successful franchise properties of all time. The character has existed in a number of different mediums and had many different

incarnations ranging from a handsome superhero in comics, to a camp billionaire played by Adam West on 1960s TV.

In 1989, director Tim Burton introduced Batman as a dark, troubled character to much acclaim. A successful sequel followed in 1992 and

continued with this theme. By 1997, after Burton left the franchise, Joel Schumacher had created a further two sequels, however these were poorly

received by both critics and audiences who claimed they were too camp and reminiscent of the Adam West era of Batman.

There were no more Batman films until 2005 when British director, Christopher Nolan, re-launched the film franchise by re-writing Batman’s

origin story and creating, much like Burton, a dark world of violence for the character to exist within. He would title this, Batman Begins. The film would be

lauded by critics and audiences alike, grossing $374Million Worldwide and three years later, delivering a sequel….

Batman and Officer James Gordon join forces with Gotham's

new District Attorney, Harvey Dent, to take on a psychotic bank robber known as The Joker, whilst

other forces plot against them, and Joker's crimes grow more

and more deadly.

The Dark Knight (Christopher Nolan, 2008, US)

On July 31st 2006 Warner Brother pictures announced that the sequel to the hugely successful, Batman Begins had gone into production. They gave only one other piece of information – The title of the film. Q. Why?

The film was given a budget of $185million dollars and would again be produced by the creative team behind Batman Begins:

Director: Christopher NolanWriters: Christopher Nolan, Jonathan Nolan, David S GoyerProducers: Christopher Nolan, Emma Thomas, Charles Roven.

Q. Why did the sequel get green-lit?

How the film was devised, financed and produced:

The Dark Knight (Christopher Nolan, 2008, US)

The Dark Knight

How the film was devised, financed and produced

The story for The Dark Knight was loosely established at the end of Batman Begins with the introduction of the character, THE JOKER.

Christopher Nolan and his frequent collaborators, David S. Goyer (with whom he wrote Batman Begins) and brother, Jonathan Nolan went about writing The Dark Knight in the Winter of 2005.

By October 2006 pre-production location scouting was already in place for a March 2007 start date for principle photography. The entire shoot would last 16 weeks and take place in China, UK, Chicago and California (USA).

Christopher Nolan

How the film was devised, financed and produced?

Which studio(s) were involved? Who are these studios?

• The film was financed by LEGENDARY PICTURES and WARNER BROTHERS, the later of whom owns the exclusive rights to the Batman Character.

• Warner Brothers has produced every Batman film since Tim Burton’s Batman in 1989 and had at this point earned over $2billion from the film franchise (Boxofficemojo.com).

• Legendary pictures was established by Thomas Tull in 2004. The company was responsible for co-financing Batman Begins with Warner Bro’s in 2005 and by the end of that year had signed a seven year deal with Warner Bro’s to co-produce and co-finance over 40 pictures. (www.legendary.com/)

In addition to The Dark Knight, Legendary Pictures has produced Superman Returns (2006), 300 (2007), Watchmen (2009), The

Hangover (2009), Where the Wild Things are (2009), Clash of the Titans (2010), Inception (2010), The Town (2010) and The Hangover

part 2 (2011), amongst many others….

Any similarities?

Marketing The Dark Knight

Christopher Nolan Interview

The Dark Knight Merchandising

The Dark Knight

Premiere

I am Legend IMAX prologue Meet the Cast

First ReviewHBO First LookFilm Trailer

Marketing The Dark Knight

A pre-sold film (DC comics, graphic novels, cartoons, television series, franchise (it is the sixth film), computer games…)

Bankable stars (Heath Ledger’s performance and untimely death)

Trailers (Teaser, theatrical, TV spots) Merchandising (Toys – Mattel) Reviews (Variety ‘Showbiz’ magazine) The premieres Shooting with IMAX cameras The internet (YouTube, official and unofficial

websites, fan sites, viral marketing)

BOX OFFICE

The Dark knight was released on July 16th 2008 in the US & Canada on 4,366 screens (wide release). It premiered in the UK just one week later on July 24th on 502 screens.There were over 3000 midnight screenings of the film in both countries and all IMAX screenings were sold out for the opening weekend.

US Opening weekend Gross: $158,411,483

UK Opening weekend Gross: £11,191,824

BOX OFFICE

As of March 1st 2009, The Dark Knight has grossed:

$533,316,061 in the US and

£48,685,166 in the UK

It’s total worldwide gross has been estimated at:$1,001,921,825

(Dec 2010)It was the highest grossing film of 2008

http://uk.imdb.com/title/tt0468569/

Audience

The Dark Knight was released in July 2008 around the world. This is the summer blockbuster market and is the most

important time of the year for film studios. During this time younger audiences are not in school and

have more time and money to go to the cinema. Batman appeals to this demographic (age of people) because

he is already established as a comic book character and as an action superhero.

Due to his long history he is also well known to older generations and therefore has a large audience.

Q. Who is the audience for the Dark Knight?

DVD/Blu Ray

The Dark knight was released by Warner Bros. on DVD, Blu Ray and digital formats on December 9th 2008.

In the UK the film sold 513,000 units in one day and it holds the record for the most DVDs sold globally in one day – 3 million. (http://articles.latimes.com/2008/dec/11/business/fi-darkknight11)

In March 2011, The Dark Knight became the first film available for rental on a social media website when

Warner Bros. teamed with Facebook.

Internet Campaigns

http://whysoserious.com/

http://www.thegothamtimes.com/

http://advertisingandsocialmedia.wordpress.com/2012/11/25/why-so-serious-the-dark-knight-and-the-dark-knight-rises/

http://www.forbes.com/sites/scottmendelson/2013/07/18/lessons-of-the-dark-knight/

http://advertisingandsocialmedia.wordpress.com/2012/11/25/why-so-serious-the-dark-knight-and-the-dark-knight-rises/

The Dark Knight Rises

Filming began on the sequel to The Dark Knight on May 6th 2011. With an estimated budget of $250million the film was released on July 20th 2012. It’s current WW. BO gross is:

It featured all of the principle producers and actors from The

Dark Knight and, in keeping with the release techniques from that film, had a teaser trailer, poster, viral campaign and had an IMAX-only prologue in front of Mission

Impossible 4: Ghost Protocol

$1,080,813,336

The Dark Knight Rises

Task: Research into the marketing campaign for The Dark Knight Rises.

Did they adopt any new strategies? Did they repeat anything from the

previous campaign? What was new?

The Lone Ranger (2013, Gore Verbinski)

The Lone Ranger was considered the flop of 2013. WHY?

Was it the

casting?

Was it the

marketing?

Was it the

budget?

Was it the

narrative?

Research Task!Why was The Lone Ranger a Flop?

Task: Produce either a PP or essay

on why LR was a flop.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JjFsNSoDZK8&safe=active