I'm pretty confident that Marvel's The Avengers will make more at the box office than The Dark Knight Rises. Marvel Studios latest (and fan-f*cking-tastic) effort reaches to a much wider audience, and honestly, is easier to digest for the masses. It's not dark, it's not deep, and it's not complex. This isn't calling it stupid nor claiming it's a terribly basic film. It's simply fun from beginning to end and, based on other reviews/word of mouth, a vast majority seems to agree that it's an epic blockbuster worth checking out.

Why is this? The factors working in its favor cast out a wider net than The Dark Knight Rises does. Director Joss Whedon's team-up is easily accessible by anyone and everyone. Regardless of your publisher preference, we all want to see a group of super heroes we know team up on the big screen, and more importantly, see if it can be pulled off. While this is a follow-up to all of the previous efforts by Marvel Studios, you don't really need to see them to appreciate this film. It was more than clear during both my viewings that much of the crowd likely only saw Iron Man or possibly even none of the other efforts. While leaving the cinema I overheard plenty of conversations including remarks such as "what's the Destroyer" and "was Iron Man that funny in his own movies?" The Dark Knight Rises is being promoted as the conclusion of the trilogy, and while already existing fans of the franchise are going to rush to see it opening night, I question its ability to pull in the much younger and/or older crowd that hasn't watched Batman Begins and The Dark Knight. That, and the vast amount of now familiar faces to the general audience (thanks to Marvel Studios tactic by kicking off their films with the excellent Iron Man in 2008) should assure its power to pull more cash. It just flat-out has more star power when it comes to characters. And then there's the most obvious reason: 3D. That alone means it'll generate more cash per ticket.

This isn't by any means saying that Marvel's The Avengers will be a superior movie to The Dark Knight Rises (even though it's more than transparent they'll be drastically different). We'll just have to wait until July 20th for that conversation. I'm sure TDKR will earn a monumental amount of money as well, and regardless of which film makes more cash, we should just be happy we're alive in a year that has not one, but two amazing comic book movies (yes, I think it's safe to assume TDKR will be great). Do you agree that Marvel's The Avengers will earn more, or do you think Christopher Nolan's final Batman film will knock out Marvel's best movie yet?

source: my blog