The Dark Knight THE DARK KNIGHT crowd reports!

[Microchip]

Great experience, as opening nights usually are. Crowd was really hot for the movie, cheered the lights dimming, cheered the Watchmen ad (embarrassingly to some, not to others I had NO idea what Watchmen was) and went nuts for the pencil trick.

They cheered for Gordan coming back.

They groaned in dismay when

Spoiler

Rachel died

They just really loved it the whole way through. It was a lot of fun.


As for the crowds, about 10-15% were in TDK clothing, about maybe 5% dressed up out of the packed sold-out house of some 500. Someone was dressed as a Penguin. Not THE Penguin, but just a penguin. With a bowtie. Maybe that's how he always dresses, I don't know.

 

[ms13]

My theater was completely sold out, which I have never seen happen.
Also, an usher was dressed up like the joker, which was quite creepy.

They surprised us when another usher was checking out the exit door, and there was knocking.
He opened it up, and was ripped out the door, and in comes the joker, laughing like crazy!
He ran up and down the isles, screaming and laughing just like the joker.
It was awesome!

Applause at the end, and many laughs and cheering throughout!

 

[adhokk7]

I haven't seen anyone mention Irvine, CA, so here's my Irvine report. We got tickets online some time ago, so no worries there. Also saw it Tuesday night in San Diego, so that took some pressure off as far as getting there as early as possible. UCI was hosting a free showing of Heat at 7:00, so we went to that, left around 10:00, picked up a couple of friends, and drove to the theater. Pulling into the parking lot, my first thought was that it was like what it must have been like approaching Yasgur's farm in '69. That is an exaggeration, of course, but we were seeing long, long lines everywhere we looked. Found the right line (there were several), got in, and the feeling in the air was great. Once the movie started, everyone was well-behaved. Lots of cheering in the predictable places, but I was pleasantly surprised when cheering erupted when the detonators on the ferries were discarded. That was cool. Saw some good costume jobs, one dude was wearing these cool expanding batwings. Everyone seemed to have a great time in our showing and it was a terrific experience all around.

 

[Hobodeluxe]

Midnight show, Dalton Ga. Packed. Lots more families with kids than I thought would be out on a weekday early morning.
Big reactions to the magic trick and the hanging Batcorpse hitting the window.
Lots of laughs and sighs. Everyone was mostly quietly watching with a look of awe on their face and the occasional cringe or gasp. Not any talking amongst the audience at all really. When Maggie dies it felt like all the air left the room.
Upon exiting the theatre I noticed everyone looking like they were trying to still soak it all in. It reminded me exactly the way they looked after seeing the Empire Strikes Back.

 

[Wedge A.]

It was sold out, and the crowd loved it. There were a lot of cheers when Gordon showed up with his shotgun.

 

[kid bosco]

Everyone in my IMAX theater stayed during the credits and we all just talked to each other about the movie, we all loved it.
We were, and I'm pretty sure still are, in AWE.

 

[Vaako]

last year, Transformers in the second week still sold out faster than TDK did lwehn I wen to see it last night.

 

[Batman137]

My theatre was great clapping at everything. They had a nice poster giveaway too. The only problem is that their was a "Disabled" person there that was making weird sounds. I was at the KOP IMAX.

 

[The Shape]

There were 8 sold out midnight shows for TDK at my multiplex, and it was insane. In my theater alone, about a quarter of the people were wearing TDK clothig, clown masks, Joker paint, or Batman outfits. The movie got an amazing reaction from the crowd.

 

[AidanJames]

Memphis:

The crowd loved it. The perfect audience. No one talked... it was all response to what happened on screen. The biggest gasp and a few "Oh my ****ing God!"s were thrown around after the pencil scene. EVERYONE was cracking up watching the Joker walk out of the hospital.

A great audience and a great experience.

 

[Bond]

It was packed, the crowd cheered a couple times. People were crackin up at Heath and "whoa"ing at Batman. It was coo.

 

[Dark Knight]

the two major IMAX theaters here in the Bay Area are sold out for the weekend so far. All times are booked!

 

[Godman]

two screenings at six flags mall in arlington tx were sold out and the major amc in parks mall is sold out till sunday night and all the imaxs are out in our metroplex all over.

It's huge and we got claps after the movie. It was fun

 

[Godman]

I'd never seen the parking lot that full at 12 midnight

 

[FlyingMonkey]

The crowd at the IMAX theater in Tigard, Oregon was absolutely packed. Never seen that many people show up for a midnight showing. Suck it, Star Wars!!

We have pics of the crowd (including people in costume) here...

http://popculturezoo.com/gallery2/main.php?g2_itemId=4807

 

[Omega Wizard]

Our local radio station gave out TDK Pizza

 

[Fenrir]

I attended two showings at the IMAX theatre in Hyderabad India, and the experience was a lot like many guys described here:

1. Some pretty loud laughs at the pencil trick and the "did you balls fall off" line by The Joker

2. I think I heard some slight screams when the fake Batman hits the Mayor's window

3. Lots of "whoo-hoos" and cheers when Batman first shows up. Same goes for The Joker's first reveal.

4. There was a pretty good applause when Batman snatched Lau away.

5. The crowd went berserk and clapped like crazy when Batman flipped the truck and then turned around in the Bat-pod. A similar applause when Gordon comes back from the dead.

All in all, I was pretty surprised. I had never seen this kind of response from an audience here in India. Normally they aren't much into Hollywood movies and the ones that are in touch are quite civilized.

 

[mongoose-mania]

Midnight show in Philadelphia. Movie played on 10 screens, each one sold out. Very energetic and exciting crowd, I might add!

 

[Marx]

The midnight showing in my theater was playing on five screens and ALL sold out!

 

[Pirate Queen]

Woodlands, TX:I told my friends I wanted to arrive at about 8 or 9- expecting a huge crowd.* Well, they didn't want to sit around that long, so we got there @ 10:15.* I was right.* We turned the corner and were met with a SEA of people.* It was incredible.* At first, our theater only had a 12:01 showing.* But within a week, they added 12:05, 12:10, 12:15, 3:00 and 6:00 showings.* Our tickets were for 12:01, so we went to the end of that line (which literally wrapped around the inside of the building), only to find out that one was so massive, it had been sectioned off.* We had chosen (unbeknownst to us) Line "A", vs. B, C, and D, so we got excellent seats as we were let in first.*

A friend of mine in our group was still in her Domino's driver uniform, and arranged for Gotham City pizzas to be delivered- for free- to the waiting masses outside the theater.* It was fantastic.*

Once inside, we had an hour to wait. There was a guy down in the *very* front row with a most excellent Joker costume, and most of his hour was spent taking pictures with people. He never even had a chance to sit down XD We got the first row of the middle section- right on the balcony and right in the middle. Not too close, not too far. To our right was a group of ghetto guys who were funny as hell- yelling at the Joker in front and other wild things that made the whole audience laugh.

As we reached the 30 minute mark, a young couple (the guy in a very LOL batman costume) a few seats over from us stood up and addressed the crowd- "WHEN WE SAY BAT, YOU SAY MAN!" and that went on 4 times or so before they sat down. Other people in the back started a wave, and some guy also in the back let loose a rather good and chilling Joker laugh as the lights went down and the movie started. Some people clapped for him.

There were very few in costume- but, this being The Woods, that's not all that unexpected. Aside from the guy up front, there were only a few Jokers (or at the least, lazy people in TDK shirts and Joker makeup), myself in the Nolan!Harley concept, in addition to two other, different, Harley concepts. One was a Hot Topic reject, the other best described as a mix of hooker and raver.

Overall, one of the best theater experiences I've ever had. We clapped and cheered when the lights went down, and again when the credits rolled. (And those of us who were around long enough for Heath's tribute in the credits cheered for that as well)

edit: Not sure why it decided to add all those asterisks to the first two paragraphs....

 

[darkseid26]

i usually go to morning showings cause i hate crowds. so i went to go see TDK at 11 and my towns still pretty asleep at that time but i was suprised when my whole theater was packed. everyone loved it and everyone laughed at all of jokers twisted jokes.

 

[MMoralN10Tion]

It was PACKED, but the crowds did have a lot of idiots in it. But, there was this one idiot who sat to my right which annoyed me... one of those fan boys who thinks he knows everything about TDK and Batman in general but had a lot of inaccurate information but just spoke really loud in order to seem smart. >.< Of course I just kept my mouth shut...i was much too speechless by the end.

 

[DaRkVeNgeanCe]

Lots of claps and cheers(I started the clapping) and all kinds of commotion at the three sold out midnight showings last night at my local theater. There were 4 people dressed as The Joker 5 including me, 1 Scarecrow and 1 Batman. There were literally craploads of people out for this, and also this morning at my 11:45 Imax showing.

 

[Ear]

Absolute SEA of people here at IMAX Palisades in NY for the 1 PM showing.

 

[tw9876z]

My theater was completely sold out, which I have never seen happen.
Also, an usher was dressed up like the joker, which was quite creepy.

They surprised us when another usher was checking out the exit door, and there was knocking.
He opened it up, and was ripped out the door, and in comes the joker, laughing like crazy!
He ran up and down the isles, screaming and laughing just like the joker.
It was awesome!

Applause at the end, and many laughs and cheering throughout!

man thats awesome. that has to be the coolest thing ive heard of a theater doing.

my midnight showing played a 'joke' on us. instead of showing the dark knight, they started showing meet dave. when eddie murphys name popped up people started screaming. one guy ran out yelling 'run for your lives'. several people then went outside to find out what the hell was going on. they came back in and told everyone that they werent going to change the movie and this was the right one. just after that when people started getting really upset then the other movie stopped and dark knight started and people cheered. I was laughing so hard, i knew they were toying with us the whole time and thought it was great.

the reactions were awesome as well. not as good as some have stated here but ill list a few.

the pencil trick casued a lot of gasp and wows.

when the joker is in the penthouse and the guy says he isnt threated by thugs and joker says ' you remind me of my father' people started getting nervous, someone said 'oh *****' and several people just made noises that meant the same thing. Really liked that response, showed people were scared of what he was going to do.

when gordon seemingly died the entire place got upset. alot of people gasped and alot of talking ensued (whispering of course) that they couldnt believe it.

When batman drops maroni and his legs break people FREAKED OUT! alot of ouch sounds were made and one guy in the back flipped out and started yelling 'No way no way he didnt do that. oh my god thats sick ' and so on

the entire chase scene got great responses. also when dent was burned several people could be heard saying 'omg hes two face' people were ecstatic about him.

i could state some more but what really got me was during the credits. more than the usual amount stuck around and when the in memory of heath ledger showed up people really made it known that they loved his performance. I saw at least four people stand, one of them took off their hat and held in on their chest in recognition and mourning. i have NEVER seen that before in a theater.

Edit: oh yeah, the place was packed! atleast 1000 people there. and i know the other places had sold out, i called and asked if they had tickets. one place sold out 1500 already and another had sold 2000 tickets!!!and i live in a small esque city