Dark Knight Rises Earns $160 Million, In Spite Of Denver Tragedy

It's been a tough start for Dark Knight Rises, following the tragic shooting at a midnight screening of the movie in Denver on Friday (July 20, 2012). Regardless of last week's shocking events, the movie has still grossed $160.8 million in its opening weekend in the US, Reuters reports. There is little doubt, however, that the incident had a negative effect on the box office takings. The film was anticipated to take between $170million and $198million domestically in its first weekend.

Despite the eventual box office results coming in lower than had been projected, Christopher Nolan's final bow for the Batman franchise has still ranked "among Hollywood's biggest openings ever." Even with a staggering budget of $250 million production costs and several millions more for promotion, Dark Knight Rises will turn a profit, if its debut box office sales are anything to go by. Currently, it stands in third place behind Avengers and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part II. Paul Dergarabedian of Hollywood.com Box Office said of the impressive total "Before the weekend, I figured it would earn around $170 million, and the fact it still earned over $160 million in the wake of the tragedy is very impressive."

The Denver shooter, James Holmes, 24, has made his first court appearance in connection with the tragedy yesterday (July 23, 2012). Barack Obama had visited the scene of the massacre to show support for the victims' grieving families on Sunday. It is expected that criminal charges will be filed next week.