The Dark Knight Trilogy facts for kids

The Dark Knight Series is a group of three exciting Batman movies. Famous director Christopher Nolan made all of them. The movies are Batman Begins (from 2005), The Dark Knight (from 2008), and The Dark Knight Rises (from 2012). Many of the same actors were in all three films. These include Christian Bale, Michael Caine, Gary Oldman, Morgan Freeman, and Cillian Murphy. People often say this series is one of the best movie trilogies ever made. They especially liked how real Batman felt in these films.

Making the Movies

Many of the people who worked on the movies stayed for all three films. However, the music was a bit different for the last one. James Newton Howard helped create the music for the first two movies. But for The Dark Knight Rises, Hans Zimmer composed the music all by himself.

There was also a change in one of the main characters. Katie Holmes played Rachel Dawes in Batman Begins. But for The Dark Knight, Maggie Gyllenhaal took over the role. You might also notice Liam Neeson in two of the movies. He played the villain Ra's al Ghul in Batman Begins and also appeared in The Dark Knight Rises.

Awards and Success

The movies were very popular and earned a lot of money. The Dark Knight was the top-earning movie of 2008. The Dark Knight Rises was the third highest-earning movie in 2012. Batman Begins was the ninth highest-earning movie in 2005.

Here's how much money each movie made around the world:

• Batman Begins earned over $372 million.
• The Dark Knight earned over $1 billion.
• The Dark Knight Rises earned even more, over $1.08 billion.

One of the actors, Heath Ledger, won a special award. He received an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for playing The Joker in The Dark Knight. Sadly, he passed away before the movie came out. So, the award was given to him after his death.

Filming Locations

The fictional Gotham City was filmed in different real cities. For Batman Begins and The Dark Knight, the city scenes were shot in Chicago, Illinois.

For The Dark Knight Rises, the filmmakers used several other cities. They filmed scenes in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, New York City, New York, and Los Angeles, California.

Images for kids

• 

  Lewis Wilson played Batman in the first film appearance of the character in the 1943 movie serial Batman

• 

  Michael Keaton played Batman in the two films directed by Tim Burton, Batman (1989) and Batman Returns (1992)

• 

  Val Kilmer portrayed Batman in Batman Forever (1995)

• 

  George Clooney took over the role of Batman in the critically maligned Batman & Robin (1997)

• 

  Christian Bale played Batman from 2005 to 2012. Director Christopher Nolan said Bale had "exactly the balance of darkness and light that we were looking for."

• 

  Zack Snyder chose an older Batman (Ben Affleck) to contrast with a younger Superman.

• 

  Robert Pattinson will play Batman in the movie The Batman, directed by Matt Reeves.

See also

In Spanish: The Dark Knight (trilogía) para niños