‘Dark Knight Rises’ Opening Weekend Tracking Lower Than ‘Avengers’

Right before 'The Avengers' came out in theaters and decimated anything in it's site, a lot of people were asking one simple question: can 'The Dark Knight Rises' beat 'The Avengers'? Weeks ago it looked very probable; after all, it's 'The Dark Knight Rises.' Now... not so much.

Currently 'The Dark Knight Rises' is tracking short of the 'Avengers' record-breaking weekend of $207 million. Facts don't lie, especially when they're tracking reports on how a movie is expected to fare out in the box office. We already know that 'The Dark Knight Rises' is going to make a great amount of money the minute it opens nationwide, but its questionable as to whether or not it has enough staying power to surpass 'The Avengers.'

The general interest for 'The Dark Knight Rises' is logged in at 64% with people selecting this as their "first choice" being 22%, reports The LA Times. That mirrors 'The Avengers,' which is great, but here's where it starts changing.

The unaided awareness of 'The Dark Knight Rises' is at 8% right now where 'The Avengers' was 13%. To top it off, 'The Avengers' didn't really have any competition when it was first released where 'The Dark Knight Rises' is sandwiched in between a couple of other summer tent pole releases. And you can't forget that 'The Avengers' is still strong, recently surpassing 'Titanic' in the highest grosses of all time. That's crazy. But this is 'The Dark Knight Rises' we're talking about. IMAX and regular midnight shows have been selling out across the country. And this is supposedly the last chapter in Christopher Nolan's incarnation of Batman. Why wouldn't people want to see it? You bet we're going to check it out right away on opening weekend.

So we leave it open to you all. Are you going to see 'The Dark Knight Rises' and do you believe that it can beat 'The Avengers' at the box office?