By: Scott Johnson on August 19, 2012
Earlier today, Comicbook.com reported that The Dark Knight Rises had reached $409.9 million at the U.S. box office and had officially become the second highest grossing movie for 2012. We also noted that while The Dark Knight Rises take has been impressive that it was doubtful that The Dark Knight Rises would surpass the U.S. gross of The Dark Knight, which earned $533.3 during its run.
Well, what’s true in America, isn’t true overseas. As of this weekend, The Dark Knight Rises has flown past the total overseas box office take of The Dark Knight. While The Dark Knight Rises was in sixth place in the U.S. in its fifth weekend, it’s still #1 overseas. According to The Hollywood Reporter, The Dark Knight Rises took in $20.6 million this weekend overseas, which brought its cumulative overseas total to $487.8 million. According to The Hollywood Reporter, The Dark Knight took in $469.7 million during its entire run in 2008. Of course, Box Office Mojo has The Dark Knight overseas number at $468.6 million, so we’re not sure who is right, but regardless The Dark Knight Rises is higher.
The amazing thing about these overseas numbers for The Dark Knight Rises is that the film has yet to open in some major markets like Greece, Italy and China. There are two takeaways from the fact that The Dark Knight Rises is performing better than its predecessor overseas. One is that the popularity of comic book movies at the foreign box office has really grown in the last couple years, and two is that the Aurora shootings obviously had a huge impact on the U.S. box office. If the Aurora shootings had not occurred, one has to wonder if The Dark Knight Rises would have already surpassed The Dark Knight in the U.S. as well.
