Normally it's fun to report the midnight box office numbers for a highly anticipated movie, thinking of all the excited crowds lining up in the middle of the night, and how much that fan anticipation might lead to a big box office weekend. Today it just feels even sadder. But let's think of it this way: while a genuine, unimaginable tragedy was unfolding at a movie theater in Aurora, Colorado, millions of moviegoers at other theaters saw The Dark Knight Rises safely, and were probably the last group of people to be able to enjoy the movie on its own terms, before the horrifying events in Aurora inevitably cloud how we all perceive the movie for months to come.
So how many people saw it? According to early numbers via Exhibitor Relations, The Dark Knight Rises made $27 million from midnight screenings last night, easily surpassing the $18.4 million The Avengers made earlier this year. The all-time record for midnight openings is held by Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2, with $43.5 million, and The Dark Knight Rises clearly won't reach that number even when the final numbers come in.
And that's pretty much all I want to say about box office right now. We'll continue reporting on the box office returns for The Dark Knight Rises this weekend, but of course the priority is covering and coping with the aftermath of the events in Aurora.
