IT'S COMING

Many Movie Theaters Decide to Leave the Bat Signal on Till Dawn

By MICHAEL CIEPLY

Published: July 9, 2008

LOS ANGELES — “The Dark Knight” just spilled over into early morning.

Trailers and Clips: 'The Dark Knight'

In a frenzy, fans have bought so many late-night tickets for the July 18 opening of the next Batman movie that theaters in places like San Diego, Chicago, and even Eagan, Minn., are scheduling 6 a.m. screenings for those who can’t get in at midnight or 3 in the morning.

Movie theaters have sometimes opened their doors at odd hours for their most highly anticipated films, say, an entry in the “Star Wars” series, and midnight shows have become part of the summer blockbuster ritual.

But all-night sellouts far in advance of an opening have come only with the near ubiquity of online ticket sales. Fandango.com, for instance, reports well over 1,500 wee-hour showings for “The Dark Knight” in theaters that typically do not open their doors before about 10 a.m.

“The Dark Knight,” which stars Christian Bale as Batman, is directed by Christopher Nolan. It builds on his “Batman Begins,” which took in more than $200 million at the domestic box office for Warner Brothers after opening to a solid, but not spectacular, $49 million in domestic ticket sales in June 2005. The film also had strong sales on DVD.

This time much of the fan interest has been driven by word of a career-topping performance by Heath Ledger, the Australian actor who died in January. His louche interpretation of the Joker has already inspired Oscar talk.

“In the public mind, opening weekends have been eventized,” said Thomas Tull, the chairman of Legendary Pictures and an executive producer of “The Dark Knight.”

Increasingly, fans have paid certain movie openings — most recently that of “Sex and the City” — the attention once reserved for rock concerts, basketball games or the introduction of a hot product like the iPhone.

About 38 percent of ticket buyers polled by Fandango said in a recent survey that they intended to take some or all of July 18 off to see “The Dark Knight.”

While Sony Pictures opened “Hancock,” Will Smith’s somewhat arch take on superheroes, to a respectable $66 million last weekend (it has made more than $100 million to date), much of the audience had jumped ahead.

According to Movietickets.com, about one in four of the respondents to a survey of moviegoers under 25 polled between June 24 and June 28 said “The Dark Knight” was the next movie he or she expected to see in theaters.

Viewers seeking Imax screenings may have to wait. All of the first week’s showings at Lincoln Square are sold out, except for some 6 a.m. screenings, Whit Clay, an Imax spokesman, said.