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From Rotten Tomatoes

More records were smashed into bits by the unstoppable megahit The Dark Knight which remained at number one by a comfortable margin for the second straight time. Moviegoers had mixed feelings for the two new releases with the Will Ferrell comedy Step Brothers scoring a solid second place bow while the sci-fi sequel The X-Files: I Want to Believe underperformed barely reaching double-digit millions.

Audiences once again filled theaters all weekend for the superhero blockbuster The Dark Knight which grossed an estimated $75.6M dropping a reasonable 52% from its record-breaking opening weekend. With the cume soaring to an eye-popping $314.2M after only ten days, the Warner Bros. release shattered the $300M mark in record time. The old record was held by Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest which banked $258.4M of loot over its first ten days and crossed the triple-century mark in 16 days.

The new Batman film also set a new record for the largest second weekend gross outdistancing the $72.2M that Shrek 2 hauled in back in May 2004. Knight has now virtually matched the $314.9M collected by Iron Man over the last three months and will become the year's highest grossing blockbuster on Monday. On the all-time list, the new Joker saga has quickly climbed up to number 23 sitting right next to 2001's The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring.

Dark Knight's hold was impressive considering how much business it already absorbed on the first weekend. Looking at the largest opening weekends in movie history, second weekend drops were 62% for Spider-Man 3, 54% for Dead Man's Chest, and 56% for Shrek the Third. Word-of-mouth has been strong for the Christopher Nolan-directed sequel and the Imax showings continue to be a major event creating even more excitement and repeat business.

Given its sturdy hold, Knight now looks to be on a trajectory that will see it zoom past the $400M mark by the end of its third week of release. With most of the summer's tentpole titles already played out, and a full month before students go back to school, the Caped Crusader now has a realistic shot of breaking through the $500M mark domestically joining only Titanic in that exclusive stratosphere.

Overseas, The Dark Knight was a dominant force grossing an estimated $65.6M and ranking number one in 43 markets. The opening in the United Kingdom which followed last week's glitzy London premiere led the way with $22.3M, including previews, while holdover markets dropped by an average of only 38%. The early international cume rose to $126.3M putting the global tally at a stunning $440.5M with major territories like Japan, Germany, Korea, and France still to open. A worldwide haul of more than $1 billion is certainly possible for Bruce Wayne and pals.


TDK Records in order of occurrence:
figures provided by Media by Numbers
  1. Largest number of opening theatres with 4,366 more than the Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End in 2007.
  2. Biggest midnight preview gross with $18.489 million in 3,040 theatres beating Star Wars EpisodeIII: Revenge of the Sith in 2,915 theatres in 2005 at $16.9 million.
  3. Biggest IMAX midnight previews set an new record with $640,000 (this amount was appropriately included in the $18.489 million preview number).
  4. Biggest single-day gross in Box-Office history with $67,165,092. Previous record held by Spiderman $59,841,919.
  5. Biggest opening weekend gross in Box-Office history with $158,411,483 million. This best the $151,116,516 set by Spiderman 3 in 2007.
  6. Biggest opening weekend gross for an IMAX release in box-office history with $6,214,061 million in 94 theatres ($66,107 per-theatre!) beating Spiderman 3 at $4.7 million in 2007 - IMAX showing at full capacity $1.9 million on Saturday alone.
  7. Biggest single-day Sunday gross with $43,596,151, beating the $39,937,865 set by Spiderman 3 on its debut weekend.
  8. Fastest sprint to $200 million domestically in just five days.

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