Ten years ago if you told me the Avengers would be one of the highest grossing films of all time, I don’t think I would have believed you. Even when Marvel Studios started pushing out the solo films that would introduce the cast of the Avengers, most people would ask me (being their “comic book” friend) who Captain America, Thor and Iron Man were. For the most part, people knew who the Hulk was because of the cheesy television series and on occasion had at least heard of one of the other members of the team, but if you had asked them if it was a film they were going to be excited to see, most would probably have passed at the opportunity.

Conversely, a decade ago if you had talked to people about a Justice League movie, you probably would have gotten a much higher positive response rate. Just from DC’s Big 3 of Superman, Wonder Woman and Batman (even before the Christopher Nolan series of films), people would have cared about the series. Fond memories of Christopher Reeves as the Man of Steel and any of the previous Batman movies were still acceptable enough to get people behind the idea of seeing them all together in one movie. But now, it’s a very different story if someone was going to try to put together a Justice League team movie.

For those who can’t stop talking, reading, or imagining what Chris Nolan’s ultimate film in the Batman franchise will be like, you’ll be in luck on December 16th, as a specific 16 theaters, all 70mm IMAX capable, will be screening a 6-minute Dark Knight Rises prologue attached to the front of Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol. Deadline‘s got the report.

The prologue for The Dark Knight Rises will not screen with digital Imax or regular digital or 35mm film presentations of Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol. Regular, non-Imax versions of Ghost Protocol open December 21. The list of theaters follows. Moviegoers should confirm theaters will be playing the prologue for The Dark Knight Rises before purchasing tickets.

That last note is especially important, because not many theaters may be supporting this, even if they say they will. Be sure to check out the full list after the jump, and find out which theater works for you, and which to skip when seeing Tom Cruise scale a skyscraper.

Dark Knight Rises hits theaters on July 12, 2012.

• Charlie Sheen’s big roast on Comedy Central is happening Monday and this new spot starring both Charlie and Martin Sheen is having us buy that it may be pretty funny.

• Apparently, hockey is cool again, between Kevin Smith’s upcoming hockey epic and the first trailer for Sean William Scott’s Goon (not to be confused with the comic), things are looking pretty violent in sports cinema.

• For those who were suckered into watching the series finale of Entourage on Sunday and got the complete lack of an ending that was given, this is how the series should have ended for everyone.

• PSA’s are all the rage these days, so isn’t it about time the web video community started mocking them? We think so, with this PSA about driving recklessly.

Maggie Gyllenhaal certainly loves her sex comedies. Before taking over for Katie Holmes in The Dark Knight, Gyllenhaal was best known for smaller films like The Secretary or 40 Days and 40 Nights in which she was normally the object of sexual affection.

It looks like she’ll be returning to that role in the upcoming period-based sex comedy, Hysteria. The film’s premise isn’t one that we could articulate to you without giggling through the sentence, so we’ll let Vulture do it justice.

Gyllenhaal stars alongside Hugh Dancy and Rupert Everett, who play inventors struggling to come up with the perfect vibrator to use on their female patients, all of whom have been deemed “hysterical”.

From Dark Knight to a film about the invention of the vibrator. Why not? It certainly can’t be any more exposing than the 2004 TV movie titled Strip Search she did, in which she was abused by the ghost-seeing Miles from LOST.

Hysteria hits the Toronto International Film Festival this year, so you can expect to see it hit theaters shortly thereafter.

As we get ever closer to the release date of Christopher Nolan’s alleged final film in his Batman franchise, we’re getting more and more of a glimpse into this world once again before it comes to a close.

Rumor has it that the first teaser trailer for the film is attached to prints for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2, which means we may get some goodies in the coming days. But before we even get that far, the very first “teaser” poster for the film has hit the web, and we’re nothing but excited.

In the poster we can see that Gotham seems to be falling to pieces, which is what we expect to be the setting for the film, as Christian Bale’s Batman makes his public turn into the hero he’s meant to become.

No sign of the film’s full cast, but you may see more of Tom Hardy’s Bane, Anne Hathaway’s Catwoman, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, or Marion Cotillard in the film’s upcoming teaser trailer later this week.

In the meantime, you can check out the poster in gigantic-size right after the jump, and keep it here for more news as it develops of The Dark Knight Rises.