Earlier this year, “The Avengers” made a huge splash at the box office with one of the biggest opening weekends of all time. Many are anticipating a similar fate as “The Dark Knight Rises” opens Friday at midnight. Our Bill Mich got a look at how theaters prepare themselves for these summer blockbusters.

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CORNING, N.Y. -- The Dark Knight Rises takes us eight years past the last installment where we saw Batman defeat the Joker. This time around, Bane is the villain and fans are clamoring to see how the saga will end.

With such a big movie release comes a big opportunity to cash in for theaters. Many Regal cinemas hosted a Batman marathon leading up to the midnight premiere to get people in the seats. Others say this movie basically sells itself.

"This is one of those where you don't need to do a lot ahead of time. Everyone is already talking about it. It's a huge, huge movie. With everything I have heard, people are going to be very happy and satisfied with this as the end to the trilogy," said Palace Theater owner Tim Bonomo.

What theaters do have to do is prepare for the crowds. The Palace Theater in Corning was making its final preparations Thursday, including putting up the Batman posters and preparing the reels.

"Making sure that you have all the supplies that you need. Do you have enough help on? Is the equipment ready to go," said Bonomo.

So while theaters are prepped and ready for the big weekend, one question remains for movie goers. Can the Dark Knight live up to the high expectations?

"Well I don't know if it will be better than the previous one, but it should be as good as the last one," said Michael Perry of Corning.

"The Joker, Heath Ledger was just amazing. Like, he did a fabulous job and I don't know how they are going to get better than that, but I'm sure they'll do it," said Samantha Conklin of Breesport.

Only time will tell if “The Dark Knight Rises” meets those expectations. But this weekend one thing is for sure, people nationwide will be filing into movie theaters to catch the final battle for the caped crusader.