Dark Knight buzz…peaking too soon?

At this point in the summer I’m basically in Batman-blackout mode. I’m not reading any of the reviews; I’m not clicking on any of the links to the viral games; I’m not even reading this supposedly awesome Wired piece about the making of the movie. I want to go into this movie fresh when I see it two weeks from now at the press screening.

Normally a studio would be psyched to have words like “masterpiece” thrown around about its film–and, to be sure, Warners is probably pretty excited that early buzz is this good (Peter Travers gave it 3.5 stars out of 4, others are going gonzo for the flick, and midnight showings are already selling out around the country). If I had to guess, I’d argue that The Dark Knight is headed toward becoming the summer’s biggest movie.

Or at least, it would be if the buzz was reaching this crescendo three weeks from now. It’s hard for me to imagine the crowds being much more amped up for this film now than on its release date, July 18. And sustaining this level of excitement for three weeks is a tricky, tricky notion. You have to be careful not to burn the audience out by running ads every fifteen seconds on national television, but you have to remind them that “hey…the movie hasn’t come out yet.” It’s not the easiest task in the world to pull off; we’ll see if Warner Brothers can.