‘Dark Knight’ sets weekend record

The new Batman flick is expected to make a record $200 million in its first week.

Los Angeles Times

HOLLYWOOD — Holy opening weekend, Batman!

“The Dark Knight,” the long-awaited superhero sequel from Warner Bros. and Legendary Pictures, sold an estimated $155.3 million in tickets this weekend, setting a record for biggest three-day take and cementing the primacy of superhero movies at the cineplex.

Batman’s haul surpassed the bar set last year by “Spider-Man 3” by $4.2 million and set the pace for what turned out to be the top-grossing overall box office weekend in U.S. history, with an estimated $253 million in ticket sales. The previous top weekend was a $218 million take two years ago, when “Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest” opened.

“‘The Dark Knight’ overshadowed everything, but a rising tide lifts all ships,” said Paul Dergarabedian, president of box office tracking company Media by Numbers. “This was just a great weekend for the entire industry.”

The weekend’s No. 2 film, Universal Pictures’ ABBA musical “Mamma Mia!,” brought in $27.6 million, followed by Sony Pictures’ holdover “Hancock,” starring Will Smith, at $14 million.

Batman’s latest triumph means that three of the top five opening weekends of all time belong to comic book-inspired films. The original “Spider-Man,” which brought in $118.4 million in its 2002 opening weekend, ranks No. 5 overall.

Despite huge expectations going into the release, the Caped Crusader’s sixth film was massive by practically any measure. The PG-13 movie set the record for top single-day receipts on Friday, hauling in $67.85 million on a record 4,366 screens, according to Media by Numbers.

The Bat-buzz was off the charts going into Friday — fueled by the success of the previous Batman installment, 2005’s “Batman Begins” (also directed by Chris Nolan), and because “The Dark Knight” is the last film appearance of Heath Ledger. Ledger died in January at 28 of an accidental drug overdose.

Nationwide, showing after showing sold out, with lines stretching around city blocks in some cases.

Dan Fellman, head of domestic distribution for Warner Bros., said the 21‚Ñ2-hour-long picture is on pace to smash the record for top opening-week take in the United States as well. He expects it to bring in $220 million through Thursday. No movie has ever brought in more than $200 million domestically in a single week. If “The Dark Knight” does, that total would exceed the estimated $180 million that Warner Bros. spent to make the film.

“Not only will it crush the record, but we’ll probably exceed the entire gross on the last Batman movie in the first five days,” Fellman said.