Burbank (CA) - Warner Bros. Pictures’ The Dark Knight set several new box office records during its opening weekend: The latest Batman movie had the biggest opening day, the biggest opening weekend and drove overall Hollywood box office weekend sales of the top 12 titles above a quarter of a billion dollars for the first time.

On Saturday, Warner Bros. head of distribution Dan Fellman reported that The Dark Knight broke the record for a 12:01 a.m. film opening, hauling in $18,489,000 for the first showings alone (the previous record holder Star Wars: Episode III - The Revenge of the Sith brought $16.9 million). That number was later updated to first day earnings of $66.4 million, sailing past the $59.8 million record set by Spider-Man 3 last year.

The record pace continued throughout the weekend with Saturday ticket sales of about $48.0 million and estimated Sunday sales of about $38.9 million resulting in total sales $155.3 million. That number is slightly better than Spider-Man 3’s $151.1 million. An Associated Press article, however, noted that Spider-Man 3 may have sold more tickets than The Dark Night, due to an increase in ticket prices: The average movie ticket price was $6.88 in 2007, translating into about 21.96 million tickets for Spider-Man 3, while 2008 ticket prices are $7.08, which indicates that The Dark Knight ticket sales should be around 21.94 million.

Including $40 million of international box office sales, The Dark Knight sales have already exceeded the movie’s estimated production cost of $185 million.      

“We have been thrilled by the response to The Dark Knight, first from the critics and now from audiences. From our earliest screenings, the buzz on the film has been white hot and it hasn’t let up,” Fellman said.

Total U.S. box office sales for the weekend were about $255 million for the top 12 movies, which bests the weekend of July 7, 2006 during which Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest drove box office sales to $218 million.

The Abba musical Mamma Mia! came in second this weekend with sales of $27.6 million, which made the movie the highest grossing musical ever. Hancock was listed third with $14 million, Journey to the Center of the Earth fourth with $11.9 million and Hellboy II: The Golden Army fifth with $10.0 million.   

The Dark Knight

Jul 20, 2008 02:41     

The Dark Knight is probably the best film I've seen in years. It went deep into why the bad guys are bad, and shows us how and why Two Face goes from good to bad. I can't say enough about The Dark Knight other than it is one of the best films I'd ever seen and is the best Super Hero film ever made. I rank it #1 in my book with # 2 for Superman The Movie. Spider-boy who???
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Best Movie I've ever seen

Jul 20, 2008 11:50     

I've had a lot of favorite movies in my life but this was easily the best I've seen. Went on opening day and will be going again before it leaves the theatres. WELL WORTH THE MONEY!!
Rob report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +3

sillyness

Jul 20, 2008 15:12     

Shouldn't such a thing be measured by seats sold, not "gross". So many different theatres choices now like the Imax etc.. and ticket prices are so varied. How can you compare opening day today (gross) to opening day 10 years ago?
crawlgsx report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +5

New Records: Big Deal, They Keep Raising Prices.

Jul 20, 2008 15:59     

Movie studios like to announce they are "breaking new records." For them, I suppose it is a big deal. However for us, the moviegoer, it's not such a great deal. They have been raising prices in concert with these "new records" all along. That's the REAL reason why they've been breaking new records! When I first went to the theater, it used to cost $5 to go on a weekend night. Now AMC Theaters charges USD $11.50! The total cost of 2 tickets plus 2 $3.50 large drinks plus 1 large $4.50 popcorn is $34.50! For that amount, I get 1½ months of Blockbuster Online with 5 in-store exchanges or about 26 DVD movies! I only pay 18¢ per 12 oz soft drink can and 18¢ per bag of extra-buttered popcorn! The days when I have been enthralled by the latest Star Wars or comic book movie are long past. I'll never understand why anyone would want to spend THREE (3) days camping in line for a movie opening. You'll never catch me doing that. I'm sure you've read about how the top actors get a minimum $20 Million per movie and actresses get a minimum $1-3 Million per movie. Well, guess who's paying for those huge paychecks. Yes, it's US, the moviegoer.

Cypherdude report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +4

Needs standardization.

Jul 20, 2008 20:35     

Why don't they list the number of actual tickets sold? What are we supposed to gleam from this dollar amount? Theaters raise prices, charge different prices, there is no standard. Just give us the number of tickets sold.
Sasquatch report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +3

Small Town Advantage...

Jul 21, 2008 07:42     

Great movie! The advantages of living in a small town... I got two tickets, two small drinks and two small popcorns... total cost $12. It would have been $8 if I had gone to the matinée.
Bob report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

talk about UK prices...

Jul 21, 2008 10:58     

Here in London some cinemas (even being crappy from technology point of view) charge as much as 15GBP per seat for a movie! In general, you can't get cheaper than 10GBP without any discounts... :( when 720p HD projectors start at 400GBP/800USD, no wonder p2p is flying and people just go to cinemas for movie openings, like Dark Knight
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@crawl

Jul 21, 2008 11:32     

the most we can do is counter with inflation. but even with more seating, movie attendance is way lower than it ever was 50 years ago
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Bob where do you live?

Jul 21, 2008 11:32     

I haven't heard of prices like that for first run movies.
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What ev

Jul 21, 2008 11:37     

Ticket prices are higher and it opened in more theatres. This might be the most overhyped movie since Star Wars I, and you saw what a crappy movie that was.
joe schmoe report abuse vote down vote up Votes: -1

RE: Bob where do you live...

Jul 21, 2008 12:03     

Peoria Illinois. Not really all that small. Population about 100,000. My wife has corrected me though... she said she paid $15 for the tickets, popcorn and soda.
Bob report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

Re: Needs standardization

Jul 21, 2008 12:08     

I agree, that the dollar amount obviously doesn't tell us much from a statistical point of view and/or in comparison to other (especially older) movies. For one theaters raise prices and of course as inflation takes effect over the years, the money paid is worth less than it used to be. But unfortunately, although communicated to us in the news, these numbers aren't directed at us, they are directed to the film studios and producers of the films. To them, the number of tickets sold isn't important at all, the only important number for the producers and distriburtors is the amount of moola that's coming in. After they invested millions of dollars producing a film, of course they want the money come back and more.

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