'The Dark Knight' Sells 13% of its Opening Weekend Box Office on Fandango

'The Dark Knight' Sells 13% of its Opening Weekend Box Office on Fandango

New 'Batman' Movie Sold 15 Tickets Per Second During Peak Periods

LOS ANGELES, July 20 /PRNewswire/ -- Fandango's previous records for daily, hourly and weekend ticket sales were beaten to a pulp by "The Dark Knight" this weekend. As mobs of fans scooped up advance tickets at a breakneck pace, Fandango sold 13% of the film's projected domestic weekend box office.*

(Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20061016/LAM046LOGO-b )

The latest ticketing data for "The Dark Knight" on Fandango includes:

-- DAILY/HOURLY/WEEKEND TOP TICKET-SELLER: "The Dark Knight" broke Fandango's daily and hourly ticket sales records on Friday, July 18. The previous record-holder in both categories was 2007's "Spider-Man 3." "Knight" broke Fandango's 3-day weekend record on Sunday.

-- FASTEST-SELLER: The new "Batman" movie was selling as fast as 15 tickets per second during extended periods on Friday. The previous record was held by "Spider-Man 3," which sold as many as 10 tickets per second on Friday, May 4, 2007.

-- SIGNIFICANT PERCENTAGE OF TICKETS SOLD ONLINE: "The Dark Knight" accounted for one of Fandango's largest percentages (13%) of tickets sold for a feature film's opening weekend. (By comparison, Fandango sold 16% of "Sex and the City," nearly 12% of "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire," and 10.5 % of "Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith" domestic opening weekends.)

-- REPEAT BUSINESS: In a Fandango.com poll over the weekend, 64% of "Dark Knight" moviegoers said they plan to see the movie again.

-- THE HEATH LEDGER FACTOR: The late Heath Ledger's Oscar-worthy performance as The Joker carved out a huge piece of "The Dark Knight's" audience: 53% of moviegoers said that Ledger was the single most important factor in prompting them to buy a ticket, according to a Fandango poll in early July.

"It's clear that people are looking for an escape to the movies these days," says Rick Butler, Chief Operating Officer of Fandango, "and 'The Dark Knight' delivered. Advance ticket sales were extraordinary this weekend. Our Web site saw an unprecedented number of moviegoers searching for theaters and showtimes while viewing film trailers and photos, and we're pleased to report we met the demand. As an indicator of the rise of online ticketing, we sold more tickets during 'The Dark Knight's' opening two days than we did for all films in the first 12 months of our company's history."

About Fandango

One of the Web's top movie and entertainment destinations, Fandango sells tickets to more than 15,000 screens. Fandango entertains and informs consumers with reviews, commentary and trailers, and offers the ability to quickly select a film, plan where and when to see it, and conveniently buy tickets in advance. Fandango is available at www.fandango.com, 1-800-FANDANGO and via your wireless mobile device at mobile.fandango.com. Fandango is a unit of Comcast Interactive Media.

* Based on the film's estimated domestic weekend box office of $153.6 million projected by ReelSource.

Photo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20061016/LAM046LOGO-b
AP Archive: http://photoarchive.ap.org/
PRN Photo Desk, photodesk@prnewswire.com
Source: Fandango

CONTACT: Harry Medved of Fandango, Inc., +1-310-954-0461,
harry.medved@fandango.com

Web site: http://www.fandango.com/

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