Pre-Dawn Ticket Sales For Knight

Demand for 'The Dark Knight' is through the roof. First they added midnight showings to keep up with ticket sales, then 3 a.m. shows, now they're adding 6 a.m. shows.

From Market Watch:

With more than a week to go before the highly-anticipated release of "The Dark Knight," Fandango, the nation's leading moviegoer destination, reports that many of its pre-opening Thursday midnight shows on July 17 are already sold out in cities across the country, from New York to Boise, Idaho. Theaters continue to add 3:00 a.m. and 6:00 a.m. showtimes to meet the ticketing demand.

Pictured is Batman watching people file into a movie theater at six in the morning to see his movie. Unbelievable.

Numbers

When adjusted for inflation just how good was box office business in 2007? It was a four billion dollar take but that's due to increases in ticket cost -- attendance was down.

NYT reporter Brooks Barnes gives us an excellent rundown on this summer's business and the implications for the writers unions negotiations -- click the audio interview on the same page.

It looks to me like, more clearly than ever, there are two issues: 1) movie theater attendance continues to decline, and 2) DVD rentals/sales (as well as other ancillary income) is becoming not only more important but of primary importance. Theatrical releases have become advertisements for the DVD.