1. Max Kath
Film Theory
Dr. Elizabeth Heffelfinger
January 21, 2009
At the start of the 21st
century the American Hollywood blockbuster was at an unusual
point in the history of American cinema. People had grown accustomed to going to see the “big
summer blockbuster” which usually featured the biggest star at the time (Will Smith and Tom
Cruise for example) starring in a movie that featured the biggest and most cutting edge special
effects of the day. The blockbuster relied so heavily on these conventions that audiences became
desensitized to them and grew tired of going to see the same thing over and over again at the
Cineplex. By the time the new century was in its third year most movies that were being billed
as summer blockbusters were spending limited amounts of time (2-3 weeks) at the top of the box
office before the next movie of the week would come in and knock it off. This trend was
something that Thomas Schatz talked about in his essay “the New Hollywood” where there
would be a very successful movie so studios would put out other films that followed the same
formula as the first success and then they would steadily make less and less money than the first
movie. There were some movies that came out in the first few years of the 21st
century that
happened to do enough business to make their ways onto the all time box office grosses (seven
of the top ten grossing films of all time were made in the 2000’s), but for the most part the
expectation was fairly low when summer blockbusters came out in the mid part of the decade.
“The Dark Knight,” which was released on July 18th
2009, changed that perception.
At the current moment “the Dark Knight” (TDK) is the second highest grossing movie of
all time ($5.31 million) right behind “Titanic,” not to mention high grossing DVD and Blu- Ray

2. sales which will probably keep the film high on the all time grosses chart for a long time to
come. The question then becomes why did the film do so well in the first place? The answer is
that the filmmakers made good use of the modern marketing technique called Viral marketing,
which essentially were fake websites created by characters from the film as well as small videos
featuring the stars of the film shown on the internet to get people interested in the movie. TDK
used the internet as its main source of marketing for the film as well as the traditional method of
showing movie trailers and TV commercials advertising the film. The first official trailer for the
film also did something unique: it was narrated by the main villain, the Joker, instead of any of
the hero’s from the film, so already the filmmakers wanted to give the viewers a unique and fresh
take on the superhero movie. The trailer suggested a much darker take on the Batman story line
and by having the Joker lead us through the trailer created the right amount of excitement in
audiences to get them into the theatre. All of these things created a perfect storm for box office
success that was solidified after the tragic death of Heath Ledger.
Ledger’s death was shocking to the film community and fans alike, compelling them to
honor his memory by going to see the movie in record numbers on opening night. But to say that
it the movie was only successful because of his death would be unfair to its technical brilliance.
The films cinematography was darker than practically any Hollywood blockbuster in recent
memory, creating a fresh look to draw people to the film, and the use of on set special effects as
opposed to CGI gave the movie an old fashioned feel because most of the stunts were done on
set as opposed to on a computer. In other words by filming the movie with classic Hollywood
techniques and combining it with a very modern marketing campaign, the filmmakers have
created a new standard that all other movies should strive to in order to once again re-establish
the blockbuster’s importance among American movie goers.