The biggest weekend box office ever earning US$155.34 million!
Now that’s what I’d call a slam dunk. Batman: The Dark Knight, just unseated Spiderman 3 (US$151.1 Million), and that was just for its first weekend show.
“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.
Movie executives guessed that people must have been “ultra-curious” at the last performance of Heath Ledger, or maybe people just want to pay their last respects to a great actor.
Batman: The Dark Knight production cost was said to have been a record-breaking US$185 million. With the first weekend sales alone they’ve made a good business investment, don’t you think? Overseas shows raked in a total of US$40 million in 20 countries. These include Australia, Mexico and Brazil. The film opens in Great Britain this weekend and rolls out to most of the rest of the world over the next few weeks.
From Yahoo.com:
Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Media By Numbers LLC. Final figures will be released Monday.
1. “The Dark Knight,” $155.34 million.
2. “Mamma Mia!”, $27.6 million.
3. “Hancock,” $14 million.
4. “Journey to the Center of the Earth,” $11.9 million.
5. “Hellboy II: The Golden Army,” $10 million.
6. “WALL-E,” $9.8 million.
7. “Space Chimps,” $7.4 million.
8. “Wanted,” $5.1 million.
9. “Get Smart,” $4.1 million.
10. “Kung Fu Panda,” $1.8 million.