I'm way too old for midnight movies, but ...

If you happen to be going to see "The Dark Knight" at 12:01 Friday morning at the Grand cinemas in Macon, you might see me there, 'cause I just bought the golden ticket!

And despite my rather mixed recent history with midnight movies, I'm severely stoked about it. Since I've moved to Macon, I've only bothered to turn out for two midnight flicks before this one.

"The Simpsons Movie" was the perfect midnight entertainment for me, just a 90 minute riff that was funnier than the actual show has been in more than a few years, but I was one of about six people there, so you'd certainly have to call that a nonevent.

"Spider-Man 3," however, was an entirely different animal. It was showing on four midnight screens, and all shows were sold out. I had never seen so many geeks running wild in a movie theater. All of which created a great buzz for what turned out to be - if I may rather hypocritically engage in some of the very hyperbole I'm about to knock - easily one of the worst movies I've ever seen. It just made me want to cry as much as poor Peter Parker was made to, and not for anything possibly approaching the right reasons.

"Spider-Man 3" did, however (as you may well already know), have the biggest opening weekend of all time, just ahead of "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest." Here, courtesy of the great Boxofficemojo site, are the top 11 opening weekends of all time (yes, it goes to 11 so I could get in this year's two biggest openings):

1. Spider-Man 3: $151,116,516
2. Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest: $135,634,554
3. Shrek the Third: $121,629,270
4. Spider-Man: $114,844,116
5. Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End: $114,732,820
6. Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith: $108,435,841
7. Shrek 2: $108,037,878
8. X-Men: The Last Stand: $102,750,665
9. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire: $102,685,961
10. Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull: $100,137,835
11. Iron Man: $98,618,668

So-called box office experts (how in the world do I get that job?) are forecasting "The Dark Knight" to finish somewhere between "Spider-Man 3" and "Iron Man" (way to go out on a limb, guys!) Given the buzz about Heath Ledger and the just astoundingly positive reviews, however, I seriously think it might just have a shot of finishing north of $150 million to knock that awful flick out of the top spot (I don't, by the way, hate all "Spider-Man" flicks; the first one was perfectly pleasant, and if you force me to pick one I'll name "Spider-Man 2" as my favorite superhero flick of all time.)

And, assuming I'm as amped up as I think I'll be after watching "The Dark Knight," I'll try to put up a few hopefully coherent sentences very early tomorrow morning when I get home. I will, however, strive to avoid the hyperbole attained in the lead for this rather rapturous review that appeared at Cinemablend.com:

Forget the great things you’ve heard about The Dark Knight. No matter how lavish the praise or how determined the hyperbole, it’s all understatement. The Dark Knight is I suppose the greatest superhero movie ever made, but it’s so far beyond the limited men in tights genre that attempting to compare it with movies like Spider-Man, Superman, or even Batman Begins is almost laughable. Director Christopher Nolan’s film trumps everything and everyone, including himself. It’s not just the best superhero movie ever made, it’s one of the best movies ever to show up in a theater.

Wow. Here's hoping I like it nearly that much, and that you all do to. Peace out.