During my fourth theater trip to see “The Dark Knight,” I didn’t watch the actors’ faces. I scanned their clothes, their cars, their weapons, their settings – looking for consumer products and brands.

Doesn’t it figure that the No. 2 box office blockbuster of all time would spawn a similar blockbuster consumer run on the branded accoutrements director Christopher Nolan deployed in the film to create Batman’s Gotham City world?

Bruce Wayne’s Italian-made MV Agusta F4 motorcycle, Lamborghini Murcielago LP640, Giorgio Armani wardrobe and Bang & Olufsen stereo. Lucius Fox’s Nokia 6205 cell phone.

Film critic Abram Sauer watches movies – a lot of movies. But the co-founder of the Brandcameo Product Placement Awards for product appearances in motion pictures doesn’t critique the films. He critiques the brands that appear in the films.

“I’m actually no fun to go to the movies with,” Sauer said this week. “Doing this has ruined my enjoyment of the films I see. … The thing is, because (the products) show up while people are on screen, you train yourself to look everywhere on the screen but the actor’s face. It kind of ruins a movie.”

But, hey, it’s a living.

Unfortunately, if the brands that show up in “The Dark Knight” had to make their living just on the promotional power earned from their appearance in the film, they wouldn’t last long – even from a movie that has surpassed $800 million at the box office worldwide.

“For as huge as the movie is, there really aren’t any big product placement stories coming out of the film,” Sauer said.

“The MV Agusta motorcycle will be something that people will buzz about and talk about. But it’s so expensive you won’t see a lot of people running out to buy one.”

You won’t see Reese’s Pieces in “The Dark Knight.” But the Hershey brand launched a promotional tie. Find the Bat Signal game pieces inside specially marked Reese’s and Kit Kat products and you could win an MV Agusta F4 motorcycle customized to look like the one Wayne rides through Gotham in search of the Joker. Value: $35,000. Chances of winning: one in 13,925,000.

The promotion may sell some candy but not a lot of Italian-made motorcycles.

What about Wayne’s Lamborghini?

“The people who want a Lamborghini already own a Lamborghini,” Sauer said. “So it won’t turn into immediate sales. If anything, its appearance in the film reinforces the brand as a luxury product.”

Nokia, through Verizon Wireless, in June issued a “Dark Knight” edition of its 6205 cell phone, which played a supporting role in the film. The phone, which sells for $69.99, includes a battery cover with the famous Batman logo.

That product might sell a fair amount. But cell phones, Sauer said, “are so interchangeable these days, the brand doesn’t say enough about anybody” to make consumers salivate.

On Web sites frequented by weapons aficionados, buzz revolves around a search for the brand of double-edged knife the Joker uses to slash grins into his victims’ faces. So far no one has found an exact match, although one knife expert says the Cupid Automatic Out the Front knife comes close.

The other Batman brand appearances qualify as minor roles or background noise.

Judge Surillo climbs into her Mercedes-Benz just before she opens an envelope with her final instructions.

The Joker and Batman confront each other in an explosive dual on a Gotham boulevard – actually LaSalle Street in downtown Chicago – where storefront signs show up for Harris Bank and Scottrade.

A Magnum Products generator supplies power for rescuers searching for victims in a hospital explosion. It hardly makes you think, “Oh, I need a Magnum 3800 portable generator.”

Watching “The Dark Night” for brands leads to a lot of dead ends. From the back row of the theater, I kept notes. Can you tie the black-stitched gloves worn by the Joker to a specific brand? How about the hand sanitizer he squirts as he leaves that room at Gotham General Hospital? That executive leather chair in Mayor Anthony Garcia’s office? Can you make out the label on the whiskey bottle Police Commissioner Gilliam B. Loeb pulls from his desk drawer? When the construction worker on his lunch break watches the Batmobile crash, does that sub sandwich in his hands have a brand name on the wrapper?

I did spot two brands not found by the Brandcameo chroniclers at brandchannel.com. On the wall in the pool hall where the Joker confronts a mobster, you’ll see a beer sign featuring Budweiser’s distinctive exploding red crown logo. And when Batman flies over Hong Kong, he passes a building with a glowing Canon sign on top.

What do all these brand sightings mean in dollars and cents?

“That’s a problem,” Sauer said. “Measuring ROI (return on investment) from product placement is almost impossible right now.”

Yet product makers see value in it, he said. Brands that appear in “The Dark Knight” or any movie will have to satisfy themselves with creating a consumer buzz about their products and hope the appearance reinforces consumer awareness of the brand.

But blockbuster status doesn’t mean the brands in a film will outsell brands in lesser films. This summer, Sauer said, the No. 1 brand placement comes not from “The Dark Knight,” “Iron Man” or “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.” No, you’ll find it in “Sex and the City,” which made just over $152 million in the U.S.

I didn’t see that movie. But Bag Borrow or Steal – an online store where you can rent high-end jewelry, sunglasses and handbags – has seen a boom in business since Sarah Jessica Parker’s “Sex and the City” character wondered where her assistant bought her purse. Check out bagborroworsteal.com.

“I don’t see any of the brands from ‘The Dark Knight’ that are going to explode,” Sauer said. “But I saw ‘Sex and the City,’ and there are a lot of brands in that film. And a lot of people would have seen the product clutch Sarah Jessica Parker had and would have immediately known what brand it is.”

And wanted it.

Dan Voelpel: 253-597-8785

dan.voelpel@thenewstribune.com">dan.voelpel@thenewstribune.com