Dark Knight Rises to $160.9 Million Despite Tragedy

Why do we fall, sir? So that we might learn to pick ourselves up.

In the wake of the horrible tragedy known as the Batman Movie Massacre, The Dark Knight Rises still brought in crowds by the thousands. The end to Christopher Nolan’s epic trilogy brought in $160.9 million this weekend, which places it at third of all time, behind Harry Potter and the Avengers. Here is the official word from the Associated Press:

LOS ANGELES (AP) — “The Dark Knight Rises” earned a sizeable $160.9 million over the weekend, making it the biggest 2-D opening ever, but falling slightly below expectations following the mass shooting at a Colorado screening of the Batman film.

Warner Bros. said Monday that the final installment of director Christopher Nolan’s Batman trilogy earned $160,887,295.

The debut makes “The Dark Knight Rises” the biggest 2-D opening ever ahead of its 2008 predecessor, “The Dark Knight.” It also gives the movie the third-largest opening after the 3-D films “The Avengers” with $207.4 million and “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows — Part 2” with $169.2 million.

Despite the impressive $160.9 million opening, “The Dark Knight Rises” fell somewhat below box office expectations going into the weekend, which ranged from $170 million to $200 million.

“Clearly, ‘The Dark Knight Rises’ was on everyone’s minds,” said Paul Dergarabedian, an analyst for Hollywood.com who specializes in box office. “I think the American public showed they were not going to be sacred away from the movie theater by the actions of a lunatic.”

Dergarabedian called the film’s opening “extremely impressive given the tragic events that unfolded on Friday.”