'Dark Knight' Sets Weekend Record with $155.34M - Special Feature

special feature

Monday, July 21, 2008 1:20 AM EDT
'Dark Knight' Sets Weekend Record with $155.34M

The Dark Knight took in a record $155.34 million in its first weekend, topping the previous best of $151.1 million for Spider-Man 3 in May 2007 and pacing Hollywood to its biggest weekend ever, according to studio estimates Sunday.

"We knew it would be big, but we never expected to dominate the marketplace like we did," said Dan Fellman, head of distribution for Warner Bros., which released The Dark Knight. The movie should shoot past the $200 million mark by the end of the week, he said.

Hollywood set an overall revenue record of $253 million for a three-day weekend, beating the $218.4 million haul over the weekend of July 7, 2006, according to box-office tracker Media By Numbers.

"This weekend is such a juggernaut," said Nikki Rocco, head of distribution for Universal, whose musical Mamma Mia! debuted at No. 2 with $27.6 million.

Factoring in higher admission prices, Spider-Man 3 may have sold slightly more tickets than The Dark Knight.

At 2007's average price of $6.88, Spider-Man 3 sold 21.96 million tickets over opening weekend. Media By Numbers estimates today's average movie prices at $7.08, which means The Dark Knight would have sold 21.94 million tickets.

Last Updated: 07-21-08 Votes: 0 Hits: 739 Cat: Top Comments (0)

MEMBER TALKBACK

Views: 739 Votes: 0

Comments (0) | Add Comments | Add News Story

TAG CLOUD

Special Features

Pandamonium! 'Kung Fu Panda' Video Int...
To celebrate the release of "Kung Fu Panda", DreamWorks Animation and Paramount Pictures provided us with 10 fun-filled cast and crew vide... read more

The Choice to Make a 'Bioshock' Movie
If anyone could turn around the video game spin-off genre, it is Gore Verbinski and that's likely why Universal and Take-Two decided to br... read more

Del Toro Talks 'Hobbit' Helming Duties
Director Guillermo del Toro told fans that there has been "a lot of movement" in talks to bring him on board to direct the Peter Jackson-p... read more

SAG to Begin Formal Talks on April 15
The heads of the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) announced on Tuesday evening that they reached an agreement regarding the contracts with the Ho... read more

And the Oscar Goes to...
No Country for Old Men emerged as the Best Picture winner, and ... read more

More News Stories

Screenwriter Zetumer to Adapt 'Dune' R...

Wilson Has 'Transformers 2' Role

Howard Replacing Gainsbourg in 'Termin...

Trio Get '2012' Disaster' Date

Huge Fire Burns at Universal Studios B...

'Charlie Bartlett' Comes to DVD on Jun...

Rumor: Lucas: 'Indy V' Is Possible

DreamWorks Finds 'Ghost in the Shell' ...

DeVito Gets Role in Disney's 'Rome'

LaBeouf Enters Universal's 'Dark Field...