Though The Avengers hit the impressive $1.5 billion mark at the global box office today, they weren't the only superheroes to hit a major milestone over this slow holiday weekend. The Dark Knight Rises, which of course opened nearly two months after The Avengers, has now made $1 billion worldwide, with $431.2 million domestically as of Sunday, and another $574 million worldwide.
And even thought The Dark Knight Rises got less enthusiastic critical reviews than its predecessor, and was less of a cultural phenomenon as it was overshadowed by The Avengers, it's already passed the worldwide take of The Dark Knight. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the second film in Christopher Nolan's Batman trilogy topped out at $1.003 billion worldwide, and with The Dark Knight Rises only now opening in major markets like China and Italy, it should easily be able to put even more distance between itself and its predecessor. It won't be able to surpass The Avengers, of course, but it will still be the twelfth-highest grossing film of all time, just behind Alice in Wonderland and just ahead of, yes, The Dark Knight.
For us American moviegoers, though, The Dark Knight Rises is still trailing well behind the previous film-- it's made just $431 million domestically so far, compared to The Dark Knight's $533 million. We'll probably never know for sure how much of that difference was made by the shootings in Aurora, Colorado the day The Dark Knight Rises opened, but it's safe to assume at least some impact there. It's only when looking at these numbers, and comparing one giant movie to another, that $400 million dollars can suddenly seem like not very much money at all.
