Batman, The Dark Knight: A summer 2008 hit for Time Warner (TWX)?


Well, looks like Time Warner Inc.'s (NYSE: TWX) Warner Bros. has a new movie that is being hyped: Batman, The Dark Knight. You can watch the first trailer here. There's just one small problem -- it is the most searched movie trailer out there, but the release is not until the SUMMER of 2008.

To make matters a bit odder, there is no film preview, only a few voice-overs and a black screen video with a bat emblem crumbling and turning into light. At least there is a brief narration of Michael Caine (as Alfred), if that is the sort of thing fans are looking for. Maybe that's all the hype Warner Bros. wants to or is willing to give, as the movie is presently being filmed. CNN also has a video demo of a scene filmed in Chicago showing the old Brach's Candy factory being blown up. But other than a humdinger of a blow-up, it's hard to tell what the scene is.

As for the lineup: Christian Bale returns as Batman and Bruce Wayne, Maggie Gyllenhaal replaces Katie Holmes as Rachel (since Katie has been abducted by aliens), and Heath Ledger is playing The Joker. Hopefully, The Joker won't tell Batman, "I wish I could quit you!" This cast seems a bit odd, but since Batman Begins turned out pretty well, it's going to be hard not to give this one the benefit of the doubt.

This is one of those franchises that keeps giving and giving to Time Warner. You can review statistics for Batman Begins gross in the U.S. and internationally, plus the production and ad budgets, at The-Numbers.com. A couple hundred million in profit here and a couple hundred million profit there never hurt any of the big studios.

Jon C. Ogg produces the Special Situation Investing Newsletter for 24/7 Wall St. and he does not own securities in the companies he covers.

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Symbol Lookup
IndexesChangePrice
DJIA+73.0712,874.30
NASDAQ+19.562,923.44
S&P 500+7.671,350.31

Last updated: February 13, 2012: 01:21 PM

Hot Stocks

General Electric

19.05+0.175(+0.93)

Alcoa

10.36+0.07(+0.68)

Apple Inc

499.86+6.44(+1.31)

Google Inc 'A'

612.61+6.70(+1.11)

Bank of America

8.28+0.21(+2.60)

Wal-Mart Stores

61.96+0.06(+0.10)

Exxon Mobil Corp

84.43+0.63(+0.75)

Ford

12.57+0.13(+1.04)

Citigroup

33.38+0.455(+1.38)

IBM

192.98+0.56(+0.29)

Yahoo

16.17+0.03(+0.19)

Starbucks

49.20+0.38(+0.78)

Microsoft

30.60+0.105(+0.34)

Home Depot

45.91+0.58(+1.28)

DailyFinance Headlines

Benzinga Headlines

TheFlyOnTheWall.com Headlines

BioHealth Investor Headlines

WalletPop Headlines

DailyFinance BlackBerry App

My Portfolios

Track your stocks here!

Find out why more people track their portfolios on AOL Money & Finance then anywhere else.

BloggingStocks Partners

More from AOL Money & Finance

BioHealth Investor Headlines

Page Loaded in 1329157286740 ms.