According to the folks over at Visible Measures, The Dark Knight Rises could be even bigger than The Dark Knight. I'm going to let that wash over you for a moment... bigger than one billion dollars worldwide. When comparing internet views of the respective trailers for each film, Rises quadruples the 2008 release.
Perhaps even more interesting is how it compares to The Dark Knight when it released back on July 14, 2008. As of its release date, The Dark Knight had scored 48+ million views, with no views coming from the movie studio. Of course 2008 was a different time for online video – there was less content and less people watched less frequently – but a discrepancy of over 150 million views between the two films is titanic.
How that translates into ticket sales is anyone's guess, but it can only mean good things for Christopher Nolan as he prepares to send Batman to take a bow.