The Dark Knight was directed by the very well established and successful director Christopher Nolan, It starred A list actors such as Christian Bale, Michael Caine, Heath Ledger, Gary Oldman, Aaron Eckhart and Morgan Freeman. It is based within a successful genre such as action, romance, explosions, heroes and villains, including special effects. It also came out in 3D to emphasize the great special effects, and to show to the public that it was a high concept film. Warner Bros made merchandising out of the characters, Batman and the Joker, which included toys and games on Xbox and Playstation. 
The Dark Knight has all the characteristics of a high concept film, and that was all able to happen because of its financing from Warner Bros, who produced the film and got all the A list actors and the director. Warner Bros is the largest and most powerful film production company in the world. It pre sold the film because Batman, was already in DC Comics and was in cartoons showed via Warner Bros. It also had toy Batman action figures and this included Batman’s villains, such as the joker. The Dark Knight was also a sequel to Batman Begins, these were all pre sold elements to the Dark Knight.
Warner Bros is the conglomerate that financed the whole film, and was part of distributing it. Without them, The Dark Knight could have never been made, because Time Warner owns DC Comics, which holds the rights of any characters from the comics and Batman is one of those characters, so no other film production company could have produced the film.
The Dark Knight was a horizontally integrated film, because of Time Warner’s ownership of DC Comics, and by owning DC Comics they were able to make Batman. From this they used Christopher Nolan who works for Warner Bros, to direct and produce the film. They used all their subsidiary companies to make the film, so all the money that Warner Bros spent on the film came back to them. For example, they used their own music studio using their subsidiary company New Line music; they used their own radio company CNN radio to broadcast the release, and advertising it on their TV channels HBO. They also used their magazines that they own such as the Entertainment Weekly, Essence and Fortune to market it and write good reviews on it. This was all part of the film being horizontally integrated and using synergy.
The worldwide Box Office taking was $1,001,921,825, with a front load of $150 million, this went towards advertising and marketing the film. The films budget was $185 million; the film was a huge success in the box office. Their viral advertising campaign that they used was a site called whysoserious.com which was made after the death of Heath Ledger, who played the Joker in the film, and this site was made before the film was released, and significantly helped to market the film. They also used IMAX, a cinema company, another subsidiary of Time Warner, to show teaser trailers before the original film that the public were going to watch.
The Dark Knight was directed by the very well established and successful director Christopher Nolan, It starred A list actors such as Christian Bale, Michael Caine, Heath Ledger, Gary Oldman, Aaron Eckhart and Morgan Freeman. It is based within a successful genre such as action, romance, explosions, heroes and villains, including special effects. It also came out in 3D to emphasize the great special effects, and to show to the public that it was a high concept film. Warner Bros made merchandising out of the characters, Batman and the Joker, which included toys and games on Xbox and Playstation. 
