Show Business

"Once again ladies and gentlemen, this is an exhibition, not a competition - please no wagering." - David Letterman
I know a guy who is actively trying to help put "Dark Knight" over the top. He continues to go out and see the Batman movie again and again with the expressed purpose of piling on to its already impressive box office take. He has seen it in big theaters and small, on IMAX and tiny multiplex screens. Within the first month of its release, he had seen "Dark Knight" six times. To be fair, he went out at the beginning of the summer and saw "Iron Man" two times in as many weeks. But the Batman thing is different.
Like so many of us out there, we now see that "The Titanic" is, if you'll pardon the pun, within striking distance. That untouchable six hundred million dollar gross now seems like a possibility for this superhero film. And why not? Records were made to be broken, right?
There was a time when I felt smug about the fact that I spent the summer of 1977 helping to rewrite box office history by using the local theater showing "Star Wars" as my logical alternative to "I dunno, what do you wanna do?" When in doubt, we went to see "Star Wars." I spent a good deal of my lawn-mowing money making George Lucas the wattle-necked-control-freak-kerjillionaire that he is today.
And for twenty years, that was the top of the pile. I was fine with that. Then along comes James Cameron and his epic about a boat. Now this great soggy mess of of a romantic tragedy is the "Number One Movie Of All Time." That is, if you count ticket sales. If you're counting darkly amusing ways to make a pencil disappear, then Batman now rules that roost.