The Dark Knight was the highly anticipated sequel to the successful 2005 film Batman Begins. It was produced by Legendary Pictures and Warner Bros, who have produced every Batman film since 1989. Christopher Nolan returned as director with his brothers as co-writers. The film had a $185 million budget and principal photography took place between March-November 2007 in locations around the world. It was released in July 2008 to huge commercial and critical success, grossing over $1 billion worldwide. Its marketing campaign began over a year before release and was considered hugely successful.

1. Year 12 Film
6/12/13

2.  Why are cinemas still important for both
audiences and producers?
 ‘The current revolution in technology is
changing the way both producers and audiences
think of film and the film experience.’ How far do
you agree with this statement?
 How far does the casting of particular actors
contribute to the identity of your chosen
production company?
Bear these exam questions in mind
for the Dark Knight Case Study!

3. Director: Christopher Nolan
Writers: Christopher Nolan, Jonathan
Nolan, David S Goyer
Producers:Christopher Nolan, Emma
Thomas, Charles Roven.

4.  The Dark knight is a film that exists as part of the Batman Universe.The Character
of Batman was created by Bob Kane in 1939 for DC Comics and has become on
of the most successful franchise properties of all time.The character has existed
in a number of different mediums and had many different incarnations ranging
from a handsome superhero in comics, to a camp billionaire played by Adam
West on 1960sTV.
 In 1989, directorTim Burton introduced Batman as a dark, troubled character
to much acclaim. A successful sequel followed in 1992 and continued with this
theme. By 1997, after Burton left the franchise, Joel Schumacher had created a
further two sequels, however these were poorly received by both critics and
audiences who claimed they were too camp and reminiscent of the Adam West
era of Batman.
 There were no more Batman films until 2005 when British director, Christopher
Nolan, re-launched the film franchise by re-writing Batman’s origin story and
creating, much like Burton, a dark world of violence for the character to exist
within. He would title this, Batman Begins.The film would be lauded by critics
and audiences alike, grossing $374MillionWorldwide and three years later,
delivering a sequel….

5. Batman and Officer James Gordon join
forces with Gotham's new District
Attorney, Harvey Dent, to take on a
psychotic bank robber known asThe
Joker, whilst other forces plot against
them, and Joker's crimes grow more and
more deadly.

6. On July 31st 2006 Warner Brother pictures announced that the sequel to the
hugely successful, Batman Begins had gone into production. They gave only one
other piece of information – The title of the film. Q. Why?
The film was given a budget of $185million dollars and would again be produced
by the creative team behind Batman Begins:
Director: Christopher Nolan
Writers: Christopher Nolan, Jonathan Nolan, David S Goyer
Producers: Christopher Nolan, Emma Thomas, Charles Roven.
Q. Why did the sequel get green-lit?
How the film was devised, financed and produced:

7. How the film was devised, financed and produced
 The story for The Dark Knight was loosely established at
the end of Batman Begins with the introduction of the
character,THE JOKER.
 Christopher Nolan and his frequent collaborators, David S.
Goyer (with whom he wrote Batman Begins) and brother,
Jonathan Nolan went about writing The Dark Knight in the
Winter of 2005.
 By October 2006 pre-production location scouting was
already in place for a March 2007 start date for principle
photography.The entire shoot would last 16 weeks and
take place in China, UK, Chicago and California (USA).
Christopher Nolan

8.  Which studio(s) were involved?Who are these
studios?
• The film was financed by LEGENDARY PICTURES and WARNER BROTHERS, the later
of whom owns the exclusive rights to the Batman Character.
• Warner Brothers has produced every Batman film since Tim Burton’s Batman in
1989 and had at this point earned over $2billion from the film franchise
(Boxofficemojo.com).
• Legendary pictures was established by Thomas Tull in 2004. The company was
responsible for co-financing Batman Begins with Warner Bro’s in 2005 and by
the end of that year had signed a seven year deal with Warner Bro’s to co-
produce and co-finance over 40 pictures. (www.legendary.com/)
In addition to The Dark Knight, Legendary Pictures has
produced Superman Returns (2006), 300 (2007),Watchmen
(2009),The Hangover (2009), Where theWildThings are
(2009), Clash of theTitans (2010), Inception (2010),TheTown
(2010) andThe Hangover part 2 (2011), amongst many
others….
Any similarities?

9. Marketing
The Dark
Knight

10. Christopher Nolan Interview
The Dark Knight Merchandising
The Dark Knight
Premiere
I am Legend IMAX
prologue Meet the Cast
First Review
HBO First LookFilm Trailer

11.  A pre-sold film (DC comics, graphic novels, cartoons,
television series, franchise (it is the sixth film),
computer games…)
 Bankable stars (Heath Ledger’s performance and
untimely death)
 Trailers (Teaser, theatrical, TV spots)
 Merchandising (Toys – Mattel)
 Reviews (Variety ‘Showbiz’ magazine)
 The premieres
 Shooting with IMAX cameras
 The internet (YouTube, official and unofficial
websites, fan sites, viral marketing)

12. The Dark knight was released on July 16th 2008
in the US & Canada on 4,366 screens (wide
release). It premiered in the UK just one week
later on July 24th on 502 screens.
There were over 3000 midnight screenings of
the film in both countries and all IMAX
screenings were sold out for the opening
weekend.
US Opening weekend Gross:
$158,411,483
UK Opening weekend Gross:
£11,191,824

13. As of March 1st 2009, The Dark Knight has
grossed:
$533,316,061 in the US
and
£48,685,166 in the UK
It’s total worldwide gross has been estimated at:
$1,001,921,825
(Dec 2010)
It was the highest grossing film of 2008
http://uk.imdb.com/title/tt0468569/

14.  The Dark Knight was released in July 2008 around the
world.
 This is the summer blockbuster market and is the
most important time of the year for film studios.
 During this time younger audiences are not in school
and have more time and money to go to the cinema.
 Batman appeals to this demographic (age of people)
because he is already established as a comic book
character and as an action superhero.
 Due to his long history he is also well known to older
generations and therefore has a large audience.
Q. Who is the audience for the Dark Knight?

15.  The Dark knight was released by Warner Bros.
on DVD, Blu Ray and digital formats on
December 9th 2008.
 In the UK the film sold 513,000 units in one
day and it holds the record for the most DVDs
sold globally in one day – 3 million.
(http://articles.latimes.com/2008/dec/11/business/fi-darkknight11)
In March 2011, The Dark Knight became the first film
available for rental on a social media website when
Warner Bros. teamed with Facebook.

17. http://whysoserious.com/
http://www.thegothamtimes.com/
http://advertisingandsocialmedia.wordpress.com/2012/11/25
/why-so-serious-the-dark-knight-and-the-dark-knight-rises/
http://www.forbes.com/sites/scottmendelson/2013/07/18/les
sons-of-the-dark-knight/
http://advertisingandsocialmedia.wordpress.com/2012/11/25
/why-so-serious-the-dark-knight-and-the-dark-knight-rises/

18. Filming began on the sequel to The Dark Knight on
May 6th 2011. With an estimated budget of
$250million the film was released on July 20th 2012.
It’s current WW. BO gross is:
It featured all of the principle producers
and actors from The Dark Knight and, in
keeping with the release techniques
from that film, had a teaser trailer,
poster, viral campaign and had an IMAX-
only prologue in front of Mission
Impossible 4: Ghost Protocol
$1,080,813,336

19. Task: Research into the marketing campaign
forThe Dark Knight Rises.
 Did they adopt any new strategies?
 Did they repeat anything from the previous
campaign?
 What was new?

20.  The Lone Ranger was considered the flop of
2013.WHY?
Was it
the
casting?
Was it the
marketing?
Was it
the
budget?
Was it the
narrative?
Task:
Produce
either a
PP or
essay on
why LR
was a
flop.
http://www.yo
utube.com/wat
ch?v=JjFsNSoD
ZK8&safe=acti
ve