The Dark Knight Trilogy

**_The Dark Knight_ Trilogy** is a set of three Christopher Nolan Batman movies. It includes _Batman Begins_ (2005), _The Dark Knight_ (2008), and _The Dark Knight Rises_ (2012). Christian Bale, Michael Caine, Gary Oldman, Morgan Freeman, and Cillian Murphy appeared in all three movies.

## Background

All cast and crew members worked on all three movies, except for music composer James Newton Howard who did not work on _The Dark Knight Rises_. Composer Hans Zimmer worked together with Howard on the first two films and made the soundtrack for the last movie by himself. Katie Holmes played Rachel Dawes in _Batman Begins_, but was replaced by Maggie Gyllenhaal in _The Dark Knight_. Liam Neeson appeared as Ra's al Ghul in _Batman Begins_ and in _The Dark Knight Rises_.

Heath Ledger received an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role as The Joker in _The Dark Knight._ Ledger died before the movie was released and the award was given posthumously.

Each of the three movies was a success in the box office; _The Dark Knight_ was the number one grossing movie in 2008. _The Dark Knight Rises_ is the third highest grossing movie of 2012. _Batman Begins_ is the ninth highest grossing movie in 2005. _Batman Begins_ earned $372,710,015 worldwide. _The Dark Knight_ earned $1,023,045,358. _The Dark Knight Rises_ earned $1,081,041,287, passing the receipts of _The Dark Knight_.

In both _Batman Begins_ and in _The Dark Knight_, Gotham City was shot in Chicago, Illinois. In _The Dark Knight Rises,_ Gotham City was shot in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, New York City, New York, and Los Angeles, California.

## Cast

- Christian Bale as Batman
- Michael Caine as Alfred Pennyworth
- Gary Oldman as Commissioner Gordon
- Morgan Freeman as Lucius Fox
- Katie Holmes (_Batman Begins_) and Maggie Gyllenhaal (_The Dark Knight_) as Rachel Dawes
- Liam Neeson as Ra's al Ghul
- Heath Ledger as Joker
- Tom Hardy as Bane
- Anne Hathaway as Catwoman
- Marion Cotillard as Talia al Ghul
- Aaron Eckhart as Harvey Dent/Two-Face
- Cillian Murphy as Dr. Jonathan Crane / The Scarecrow
- Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Robin John Blake
- Colin McFarlane as Gillian B. Loeb
- Néstor Carbonell as Mayor Anthony Garcia
- Tom Wilkinson as Carmine Falcone
- Eric Roberts as Sal Maroni
- Ben Mendelsohn as John Daggett
- Matthew Modine as Peter Foley

### Box office performance

|scope="col" rowspan="2"|Film|scope="col" rowspan="2"|Release Date|scope="col" rowspan="2"|Budget|scope="col" colspan="3" class=sortable|Box Office Gross|scope="col" colspan="2" text="wrap" class=unsortable|All Time Ranking|scope="col" rowspan="2" class=unsortable|References|
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
|style="text-align: left;"|_Batman Begins_|June 15, 2005|$150 million|$206,852,432||$374,218,673|195|326||||
|style="text-align: left;"|_The Dark Knight_|July 18, 2008|$185 million|$535,234,033||$1,004,934,033|12|43||||
|style="text-align: left;"|_The Dark Knight Rises_|July 20, 2012|$250 million|$448,139,099|$636,800,000|$1,084,939,099|19|29||||

### Critical response

|Film|Rotten Tomatoes|Metacritic|CinemaScore||
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
|style="text-align: left;"|_Batman Begins_|84% (279 reviews)|70 (41 critics)|A|
|style="text-align: left;"|_The Dark Knight_|94% (334 reviews)|84 (39 critics)|A|
|style="text-align: left;"|_The Dark Knight Rises_|87% (359 reviews)|78 (45 critics)|A|

## Other website

- _Batman_ franchise overview at Box Office Mojo
- Behind Batman: Public Domain Analysis of the Film Franchise