- Time Warner -- through its Warner Brothers and DC Comics subsidiaries are profiting most directly.
- Comcast Corporation (NYSE: CMCSA) partnered with Warner Bros. to offer "behind-the-scenes footage, trailers, and mini movies on demand"
- Verizon Communications, Inc. (NYSE: VZ) and Nokia Corporation (NYSE: NOK) collaborated in creating the Nokia6205 The Dark Knight Edition. Seeking Alpha reports that "This batphone targets superfans, with bat wallpaper, voice tones, screensavers, and the film's trailer pre-loaded."
Posts with tag dark knight
How to profit from the Dark Knight Industrial Complex
Continue reading How to profit from the Dark Knight Industrial Complex
'Iron Man' vs. 'Indy': Preview of potential summer blockbusters

5/2 - Iron Man, Viacom (NYSE: VIA)'s Paramount Pictures
The first of two big Marvel Entertainment (NYSE: MVL) adaptations of the summer, the Robert Downey Jr. led Iron Man has been getting a ton of hype and critical acclaim. This is the second year that a comic book adaptation has kicked off the summer, following last year's Spider-Man 3, which grossed over $150M over its opening weekend.
5/9 - Speed Racer, Time Warner (NYSE: TWX)'s Warner Bros.
Another big-budget adaptation of a generations-old cartoon. Last year's Transformers was, to my surprise, a huge success, so maybe Speed Racer, in the capable directing hands of the Wachowskis, can be as well.
Continue reading 'Iron Man' vs. 'Indy': Preview of potential summer blockbusters
Revealed image indicates 'Dark Knight' indeed
Time Warner Inc.'s (NYSE: TWX) Warner Bros. Entertainment division revealed the look of actor Heath Ledger as the Joker in The Dark Knight, the upcoming sequel to 2005's Batman Begins, last week on one of three new websites designed to promote the film: www.ibelieveinharveydenttoo.com. The image has since been removed from the site and a disclaimer reads "Page not found" but if you highlight the page you can read several hundred "ha ha's," with displaced letters throughout the text reading "see you in December."
The sequel planned for release in the United States in July 2008, follows the $372 million blockbuster Batman Begins, which showed a young Bruce Wayne struggling to deal with his parents murder and vowing to clean-up Gotham City as Batman. In The Dark Knight, Batman will purportedly continue his fight to clean-up Gotham while the Joker, his comic book arch-nemesis, comes into the picture and causes more chaos. If this image and its grotesque indications are any sign, the new film is going to follow the first nicely and add more to the realistic tones set down by director Christopher Nolan and writer David S. Goyer. Fans and summer blockbuster viewers will have to wait another fourteen months to see though.
Time Warner, which closed at $21.56 yesterday, will have a hard road in those months to sell this new Joker to kids and families like it has sold products for every Batman film since 1989, which featured Jack Nicholson as the Joker. While this new incarnation is showing no sign of being connected to Nicholson's portrayal, it seems hard to determine how or if Time Warner will even attempt to market the character. Certainly a Heath Ledger Joker action figure will be produced, but who will purchase it? Kids (the parents for the kids), or the fans and collectors that jump on the dark nature of the acting, character, and ultimately film.










