How unstoppable was the selling machine behind The Dark Knight ? Enough for Heath Ledger ’s dying and Christian Bale ’s predilection for family communication with fists to be easily draw off , patently , leading to a motion-picture show whose succeeder surprise even its studio psyche . The Hollywood newsperson looked into the cause required to teach America to require “ Why so serious?”Unlike Batman Begins , which offered very few merchandising tie - ins , The Dark Knight started sprightliness as a merchandising bonanza , agree to the report :
Batman Begins ” had played down its necktie - ins , but for “ Knight , ” Warner Bros. Consumer Products and DC Comics ramped up their endeavor more than a class in progression of the picture ’s vent , sell the master licence to toymaker Mattel , with additional toy dog from Lego and Halsall and everything from Batman - branded underwear to a pot for Kmart to serve as the “ Official Batman Headquarters . ” … It was Nolan who came up with the idea of using the cinema ’s closely six - moment opening chronological sequence , a bank robbery , as a second tormentor seize to the Imax release of “ I Am Legend ” in December . “ He wanted to make the pic into even more of an event , ” [ Producer Chuck ] Roven explain .
The death of Ledger threatened to derail all of the selling plans … until his category stepped in , as Warners COO Alan Horn explained :
“ We were already out with the ‘ Why so serious ? ’ run , ” he notes . “ We said ( to Ledger ’s home ) , ‘ bet , is this an result ? Would you like us to displume this ? ’ And here ’s what they enounce : ‘ Heath loved the pic , was very proud of it . This was just an accident . ’ They were fine with it — more than o.k. , they were whole supportive . ”
Sue Kroll , Warners ’ President of Worldwide Marketing , continues the story :
t became very clear when the family and others started to see some of Heath ’s bluster carrying out , and what a centerpiece it was to the picture , that there was no thought of market the plastic film without him , as some suggested in the press around that meter .
And news report of Bale beat his family ? Also easily avoided by the studio , according to Horn :
We just ignored it because it was his personal concern … If he had asked us to involve ourselves , we would have been uncoerced to talk over that , but he did n’t remark it , and we did n’t bring up it .
That ’s right ; Warners now operates on a “ Do n’t Ask , Do n’t severalise ” footing when it comes to scandals . Or maybe that ’s just if your moving-picture show is about to become the 2d highest - grossing of all time . bod of a hit : The Dark Knight[Hollywood Reporter ]
Batman
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