Last weekend, “The Dark Knight” made history by becoming the film with the largest opening weekend gross ever with $158.4 million. Without a doubt, a large part of that was achieved thanks to the posthumous performance of Heath Ledger as the Joker.

Ledger died of a drug overdose in January 2008 at the age of 28. Because of the nature of Ledger’s death and his untimely demise, there is a good chance that he, like many actors and musicians who passed away in their prime, could achieve cult status.

It has happened so often over the years, the pattern is predictable. Iconic musicians like Jimi Hendrix, Jim Morrison, Bob Marley and Kurt Cobain, along with actors like James Dean and Marilyn Monroe, all share a few common threads. They all died young. They all died unexpectedly. They all continue to develop fans and fascination with their lives and their creative work.

Fans not only want to experience their creativity, a lot of times, they want something more. And thanks to merchandising putting these people’s faces on everything including T-shirts, posters and other collectibles, they are anxious to get a piece of them as a keepsake.

Tina Phillips, manager of Record Wear House, says that she sells plenty of shirts and collectibles featuring Jimi Hendrix, Jim Morrison and Kurt Cobain. She even got a chance to witness the effects an artist’s premature death and its effect on sales when ex-Beatle John Lennon was assassinated in 1980. Shortly after his death, his album “Double Fantasy” featuring his wife Yoko Ono was released and the sales for that record were crazy.

“When he died, it was like Kaboom! You couldn’t get enough of them in,” Phillips recalls.

Ron Dunwoody is the co-owner of Nostalgiaville USA in Kingdom City, Mo., a store that specializes in selling iconic collectibles from the 1950s and 1960s. He says the sales of items adorned with images of James Dean, Marilyn Monroe and other personalities are what keep his business afloat. He also believes that stars from that era, like Monroe, may not have had the following they do today if they had lived on.

“She stopped in time at the peak of her career and her appearance,” Dunwoody says. “She did not have the ravages of time that people have when they grow old.”

But what about James Dean, another ‘50s icon who died in a car accident at the age of 24 and who only made three films his entire career? Deny Staggs, assistant professor of theater and video at Missouri Western State University, believes that his popularity is rooted in his films and their reflection of that time period. Dunwoody says that Dean’s movies, life and death exuded a sense of rebellion that people to this day identify with.

“I think it’s that rebel image he had...he just lived life in the fast lane,” Dunwoody says.

But being a famous performer and dying young doesn’t necessarily guarantee reverence of this level. Take River Phoenix, an Oscar-nominated actor who died of a drug overdose in 1993 at age 23. You don’t necessarily see his face plastered on T-shirts and posters, do you? But Staggs thinks his work, along with the work of others who met a similar fate, is looked at differently than those who live on.

“You have no reference point for that person after that point...it becomes framed,” he says. “Their work becomes a little more pure.”

A lot of people’s fascination with these artists’ work and lives may be rooted in what would have happened if they were alive today. They could have gone on to write more great songs or deliver legendary performances. Then again, as KQ2 movie critic Bob Shultz says, some of these performers could have ended up on the Branson strip in their old age.

While there seem to be some consistencies, there is no infallible formula to what determines which artists that die young become cultural icons or tragic footnotes. It will take a couple generations to see which one Heath Ledger becomes. But after seeing Ledger’s performance in “The Dark Knight,” it’s hard to not to leave the theater amazed yet frustrated, knowing you will not get another one. As Shultz points out, “When most of these people ... die, it’s the ‘what ifs’ that just kill you.”