The Dark Knight is about to get the blame for low productivity, if Fandango's advanced ticket sales continue at the rate they are now. The movie ticket site reports that many of its pre-opening Thursday midnight shows on July 17 are already sold out in cities across the country, and theaters continue to add 3:00am and 6:00am showtimes to meet the ticketing demand.
 
More than 1,500 late-night showtimes of the movie have been scheduled for the film's pre-opening on Thursday night (Friday morning), July 17-18, and an online survey reported that:

- 37% of respondents plan to see the film at least once during one of the late night performances on Thursday night.
- 38% say that they intend to take off a few hours or the entire day from work on Friday as a result of seeing the movie the night before.
- 60% of these moviegoers are male.
- 71% are under the age of 35.
- 39% plan to see the film in IMAX.
- 92% expect that the Academy will recognize Heath Ledger's performance as The Joker with a posthumous Oscar nomination next year.
 
For Fandango, The Dark Knight is poised to be the year's top advance ticket-seller in wide release, outpacing Iron Man, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull and Sex and the City at the same point in those films' sales cycles.