Batman's triumph means three of the top five opening weekends of all time belong to films inspired by comic books. The original "Spider-Man," which brought in $114.8 million during its opening weekend in 2002, ranks No. 5 overall.
Despite huge expectations going into the release, the Caped Crusader turned in a massive performance in his sixth outing. The PG-13 film set the record for top single-day receipts Friday, hauling in almost $67.9 million on a record 4,366 screens, according to Media by Numbers.
Shot partially in Imax and shown on 94 Imax screens, "The Dark Knight" also set a weekend record for the oversize format, taking in $6.2 million. Imax tickets cost significantly more than regular tickets, which can skew the box-office total. "Spider-Man 3" also opened in Imax theaters, but on only 84 screens.
Year to date, the biggest pictures are "Iron Man," which has brought in $314.4 million in the U.S., and "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull," with a domestic total of $312.6 million.
The Bat-buzz was off the charts going into Friday -- fueled by the success of the hero's previous appearance on the silver screen, 2005's "Batman Begins" (also directed by Chris Nolan), and because "The Dark Knight" features the final appearance of Heath Ledger, who plays the Joker. Ledger died in January at age 28 of an accidental drug overdose.
Nationwide, showing after showing sold out, with lines stretching around city blocks in some cases.
In Santa Monica on Saturday, eight high school buddies bought tickets for the 11 p.m. show more than 2 1/2 hours before the previews began. They did so, said Holden Foshag, because they'd been unable to get in the night before.
"It was totally sold out," said Holden, a basketball player who will enter his senior year at Santa Monica High in the fall. "I just have to see this movie."
Dan Fellman, head of domestic distribution for Warner Bros., said the 2 1/2 -hour-long picture was on pace to smash the record for top opening-week take across the country as well. He expected it to bring in $220 million through Thursday. No movie has ever racked up more than $200 million domestically in a single week. If "The Dark Knight" does, sales would exceed the estimated $180 million that Warner Bros. spent to produce 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.
