Nolan's future involvement with the series...

[thecolorsblend]

It may be a good film, but it sure as Hell won't beat The Dark Knight, not unless they brought in Johnny Depp to take on the role of the Joker then....you never know....the box office may be in for another surprise. Johnny's movies have brought in tons of cash in the past, and I'm sure this would be no exception.

I guess I could be wrong (although what are the odds of that?) but I can't picture Depp being offered or accepting the role.

On top of that, I can't really envision his participation making a big difference either way.  He'd be compared to Ledger who, lest we forget, won an Oscar in the role.  Ledger is the Joker for this generation and I don't think they'd easily accepted someone else in the role.  Not even Capt. Jack Sparrow.

But even if they did, I definitely can't imagine it making all that big a difference to the box office.  TDK is lightning in a bottle.  You won't see that again any time soon from any movie, Batman or not.

[The Dark Knight]

On top of that, I can't really envision his participation making a big difference either way.  He'd be compared to Ledger who, lest we forget, won an Oscar in the role.  Ledger is the Joker for this generation and I don't think they'd easily accepted someone else in the role.  Not even Capt. Jack Sparrow.

Agreed. Ledger is now a martyr. You cannot compete with that type of power. However is the next villain, they will just not measure up to him - no matter what. Even if he/she is better, the fans won't allow it.

[thecolorsblend]

^ Good point, and yet another argument against continuing the franchise in it's current form.  If the film hadn't been as ridiculously successful as it was, if audiences (or at least the Nolanites) hadn't so vociferously clutched on to Ledger, if if if, there'd be a good argument for finishing off the trilogy... but the way that it is now, it could only lead to disappointment.

WB, I'm sure, will continue the franchise and it'll make a killing, I'm sure, but the critics are going to have their crosshairs lined up and the fans are going to have their blinders on.

Seriously, what's the gain here?

[Joker89]

I can still picture the next film making $300 million easy.

The film could suck and it would still make a lot at the Box Office. Look at Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen. I wouldn't go to see that movie even if it were free. But it's making tons of money at the Box Office. Why? Because some people enjoyed the first one and now they're back for seconds.

Something I just never understood with sequels. Like Shrek 2 and Shrek The Third and the Pirates of the Caribbean Sequels?? Those movies weren't very good at all and they beat out films that actually deserved a top 10 spot. So I would hope that the next Batman film is fantastic, critically and financially like The Dark Knight making the Batman franchise one of the most popular franchises in movie history beside Star Wars.