I don’t know what’s worse, telling you how much The Dark Knight Rises earned on midnight showings last night, or running down more gory details about the killing. It’s all pretty bad, but it kind of turns the volume down on all the other stuff going on today. I’m kind of at a loss here. Anyway, to catch everyone up, the killer apparently told police he was The Joker and had his hair painted red during the shooting. The Joker isn’t in The Dark Knight Rises and doesn’t have red hair, but the shooter’s failure as a fact-checker seems somewhat minor in light of his other crimes.
Meanwhile, The Dark Knight Rises earned $30.6 million in midnight grosses, topping the last Twilight‘s $30.2 million and nearly doubling The Avengers $18 million. It wasn’t as good as the all-time record holder, the last Harry Potter, which earned $43.5 million. The Dark Knight is the only one of those I mentioned that didn’t have the advantage of screening in higher-priced 3D, though it was heavily pushed in IMAX, so it could be a wash.
I don’t feel like speculating as to what the shooting will mean for WB’s bottom line, but if you do, you can always read Nikki Finke’s article about it. It’s the one she wrote right before she ripped Warner and their “Hollywood values where money trumps everything, even during the Aurora theater shooting,” because Warner didn’t pull the Gangster Squad trailer (only to discover later that they actually had) where the characters shoot up a theater. A video she helpfully included in her post about it. Nice.
Elsewhere on the internet, everyone from the Libertarian presidential candidate to Michael Moore, to Snooki and Mario Lopez (from a TooFab article that also includes reactions from former Real Housewife of New York, Billy Ray Cyrus, and Dick Vitale) have “released statements” about the shootings. And here’s a helpful tip for you people: Shut the f*ck up. If you’re not family of a victim or a police spokesperson, at least give it a full 24 hours before you open your big stupid yap about how this relates to your political agenda. We’re really quick to jump to “teaching moments” these days, but how about we pause and figure out what the moment is before we start incorporating it into our lesson plans, shall we? Guh. I’m gonna go pet my dog and have a drink.