"The Dark Knight" topped the box office for a second weekend in a row in
ticket sales at US and Canadian theaters, becoming the first film to surpass
US$300 millionin 10 days, media reported today.
The sequel to "Batman Begins" took in 75.6 million dollars this weekend,
giving it 314.2 million dollars since its July 18 debut.
That surpasses the record set in 2006 by "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead
Man's Chest," which took 16 days to make 300 million dollars.
"The Dark Knight," starring the late Heath Ledger as the Joker, set five
box-office records last week, including best opening-weekend sales with US$158.4
million and best single-day with 66.4 million dollars.
Dan Fellman, Warner Bros. head of distribution, expects that the epic Batman
saga could reach US$400 million in about 18 days, which would beat the record
"Shrek 2" set in 2004 when it made that much money in 43 days.
"What can you say? We've been getting a lot of repeat business coming in,"
Fellman said. "Our audience is expanding, like you would expect with terrific
word-of-mouth and strong reviews. Our audience is getting a little bit older,
that's the good news. We're finding the younger demographic, male and female,
coming back."
Coming in second place was "Step Brothers," which had a strong opening of its
own with US$30 million.
Will Smith's superhero flick "Hancock," placed third with US$8.2 million.
The weekend's other big release "The X-Files: I Want to Believe," came in the
fourth place with an estimated US$10.2 million.
