As promised, Warner Bros. has officially announced that The Dark Knight will return to conventional and IMAX theaters on January 23, 2009.

President of Domestic Distribution Dan Fellman explained that this was in an effort to allow people one more chance to “…experience it on the big screen as it was meant to be seen.” While that may be the case, one has to think that this also has tremendous implications in trying to gain that last $70 million to put it past the $600 million domestic mark, and to replace Titanic as the #1 box office movie of all time. One also has to consider that this may also be a little reminder to people how damn good it was and how great the performances were just in case they maybe get an award nomination or two.

When the movie is re-released, keep in mind that at that very moment, IF the movie had stayed strong in theaters straight through from July 18 to January 23, it would only have been in theaters six months — still a whole three months short of the full nine-month run that Titanic had. This is a good marker for how big this thing was and still can be.

The big question is, can it really make $70 million in a re-release? The answer to this is, I have no freakin’ clue. I really don’t. It would not be an easy thing to pull off, to tell you the truth, but I hope it is does. I’ve already seen it in IMAX, but I may just try and squeeze in one or two more viewings to help it along. If you haven’t seen it in IMAX, make it a POINT to get out there in January and check it out. It’s a whole new ride, my friends.

Oh, and remember, if this doesn’t find a way to make it past Titanic — with how much movies make on DVD nowadays — it’s very likely that no other movie will come anywhere near this close again. At least for now, anyway. Who knows what will happen when inflation has tickets at $27 a pop. So get out there to see it one last time and bring all your neighbors.

On a separate note, THR is reporting that Apple has received so many pre-orders for download and rental of The Dark Knight that it has surpassed Wall-E as their best-selling download of the year… a feat that’s pretty impressive.

The film will be available this Tuesday, December 9 on DVD for $20.99 or Blu-ray for $23.99 from Amazon; if you pre-order through Amazon, you can ALSO watch it for free through their Video On Demand on the day of release (or, you can buy it just On Demand for $14.99 to have the digital copy only). More details on pre-order here.