The Dark Knight Rises Earns $25 Million before Midnight Premiere, Will It Break “Avengers” Record?

Bale signs autographs after a hand and footprint ceremony for director Christopher Nolan in the forecourt of the Grauman's Chinese Theater (Photo : Reuters)

With Australia currently watching The Dark Knight Rises, spoilers and reviews are hitting sites at a rapid rate, while here in America, the film has already earned $25 million on pre-sales alone.

But with the impressive pre-sale money, will it be enough to break the record The Avengers made back in May?

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According to Fandango, 85 percent of their tickets went to The Dark Knight Rises, however that is down 10 percent compared to The Avengers.

The Dark Knight Rises does have one advantage against The Avengers, with the second-largest number of screens ever with 4, 404 theaters nationwide. First place went to The Twilight Saga: Eclipse in 2010 with 4,468 screens.

According to the Wall Street Journal, midnight IMAX screening tickets are being scalped on sites like Craigslist and StubHub between the prices of $65 to $100. Such prices are usually geared for sporting events and concerts. Time reports a ticket being sold for $175 for an opening night seat.

The film is currently projected to earn $180 million, approximately $41,000 per theater. The stellar amount is short from the $207.4 million The Avengers earned, but the latter film opened with 3D screenings, while the Nolan-flick isn't offered in 3D.

The Dark Knight Rises is expected to break records at a 2D film, previously held by fellow Batman film The Dark Knight.

The current projections are a far cry when the Batman Begins opened to $48 million.

Hollywood.com's Paul Dergarabedian said, "It wasn't until the Heath Ledger mystique was created - unfortunately, for a variety of reasons - that the movie was catapulted into a different league. "Interest in The Dark Knight Rises was certainly kicked up tremendously by the success of The Dark Knight."

Dergarabedian added that the cliffhanger of The Dark Knight is another selling pointed, as well as the addition of Anne Hathaway as a way to attract women to the usually male-dominated film.

"The Avengers and The Amazing Spider-Man didn't have a huge preponderance of women. It's not like they're chasing the female audience," said Dergarabedian. "If you can get the female audience to buy off on the Catwoman character - who is terrific, by the way, and who does an absolutely great job in this movie - that could benefit the film for sure. When you have strong female characters, women respond. Look at Katniss Everdeen in The Hunger Games. Strong female characters definitely resonate with female audiences."

According to early reviews, such as Jeremy Kirk of FirstShowing.net, The Dark Knight Rises "warrants repeat viewing more so than Batman Begins or The Dark Knight. Unlike Inception, Nolan's last film, the complexities of the story here don't feel as warranted. Neither do the moments of blatant exposition scattered throughout, as if the writers here couldn't figure out a more organic way of delivering information to the character or to us. It's the only time in this series that this becomes a noticeable problem."

The Dark Knight Rises makes its long awaited debut tonight at midnight.

READ THE REVIEW OF THE FILM HERE.