A week from today, I’ll be counting down the minutes until one minute after midnight … when The Dark Knight will begin to unfold in front of my eyes on an IMAX screen in Los Angeles.

I’ll be seeing the film with my friend Kareem, his beautiful girlfriend Claire, and his gorgeous friend Kay-Anne.

And that’s a massive honor for me, because Kareem and I have been talking about this movie and its epic predecessor, Batman Begins, for a long time (and usually for a very long time each time).

It’s going to be good.

And as it turns out, we’re not the only ones who want to see the movie.

Kareem sent me these stats from Fandango:

• 37% of respondents plan to see the film at least once during one of the late night performances on Thursday night.
• 38% say that they intend to take off a few hours or the entire day from work on Friday as a result of seeing the movie the night before.
• 60% of these moviegoers are male.
• 71% are under the age of 35.
• 39% plan to see the film in IMAX
• 92% expect that the Academy will recognize Heath Ledger’s performance as The Joker with a posthumous Oscar nomination next year.

Sweet.

And the New York Times has a good story about it, too:

Because of Demand, Many Theaters Decide to Leave the Bat Signal on Till Dawn

This is going to be huge.

“Biggest movie of the year” huge?

I’m going to make a bold declaration and say that I think it will be.