Film 06 / 13 · Directed by Christopher Nolan
Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight (2008)
The Dark Knight is Christopher Nolan's 2008 Batman film and the middle part of his Dark Knight trilogy. Christian Bale's Batman faces Heath Ledger's Joker, a performance that won a posthumous Oscar. It was Nolan's first film to take more than $1 billion worldwide and won two Oscars from eight nominations.
A year after Batman first appeared, he, Lieutenant Gordon and the new district attorney Harvey Dent are close to breaking the mob that runs Gotham.
Then a criminal who calls himself the Joker starts a campaign of chaos, and each of the three men has to decide how far he is prepared to go to stop him.
Ratings
As of 11 November 2026- IMDb9.1/103.2M votesTop 250 · #3
- Rotten Tomatoes94%Tomatometer · 337 reviewsPopcornmeter 94%
- Metacritic85/100Metascore · 41 reviews
- Letterboxd4.50/5Average rating
- Kinopoisk8.5/10822.5K votesTop 250 · #17
Editor's score
Lars Ziegler · 6 November 20269.3/ 10Average of seven craft categories, each out of 10.
| Screenplay | 10 |
|---|---|
| Direction | 10 |
| Acting | 10 |
| Cinematography | 9 |
| Sound & music | 9 |
| Editing | 9 |
| Design | 8 |
How the ranking adds up
Total 84.1 / 100Facts
- World premiere
New York City- Release (US)
- Runtime
- 152 min
- Genres
- Action · Thriller · Crime
- Based on
- DC Comics characters
- Studios
- Warner Bros. Pictures, Legendary Pictures, Syncopy
- Distributor
- Warner Bros. Pictures
- Budget
- $185 million
- Box office
- $1.01 billion worldwide
$535 million domestic · $473.3 million international
Incl. re-releases · Box Office Mojo, 11 November 2026
Awards
Wikipedia, 11 November 2026| Ceremony | Won | Nominated |
|---|---|---|
| Academy Awards | 2 | 8 |
| BAFTA | 1 | 9 |
| Golden Globes | 1 | 1 |
Academy Awards won
Best Supporting Actor · Best Sound Editing
BAFTA won
Best Actor in a Supporting Role
Golden Globes won
Best Supporting Actor – Motion Picture
Also
Grammy Award for Best Score Soundtrack Album · SAG Award for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role
Cast
Billing order- 01Christian BaleBruce Wayne
- 02Michael CaineAlfred
- 03Heath LedgerJoker
- 04Gary OldmanGordon
- 05Aaron EckhartHarvey Dent
- 06Maggie GyllenhaalRachel
- 07Morgan FreemanLucius Fox
Key crew
- Director
- Christopher Nolan
- Screenplay
- Jonathan Nolan, Christopher Nolan
- Producers
- Emma Thomas, Charles Roven, Christopher Nolan
- Cinematography
- Wally Pfister
- Editing
- Lee Smith
- Music
- Hans Zimmer, James Newton Howard
- Production design
- Nathan Crowley
Production notes
- 01
About 28 minutes were shot with IMAX film cameras, which made it the first Hollywood feature to use them for parts of the story.
- 02
The 18-wheeler that flips end over end was flipped for real, on LaSalle Street in Chicago, with a stunt driver inside.
- 03
Heath Ledger won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor in 2009, a year after his death.