Fantasy Moguls’ Steve Mason is reporting a Dark Knight surge yesterday that over took Pineapple Express , beating the stoner comedy $7.8 million to $7.65 million — marginal — but with projected weekend tallies of $26.5 million vs. $22.9 million, respectively. This will be the fourth weekend in a row that Chris Nolan‘s film has been #1.
I asked about buying a large-sized Heath Ledger Joker doll the other day, and the guy at the counter said the demand was so overwhelming that sales guys for the manufacturer were actively discouraging retailers from placing any more orders. Has an American manufacturer ever anticipated an extraordinary demand for a faddish product? Manufacturers should have instantly realized after Ledger’s death that they needed to double or triple up on production. Did they do this? Of course not.