The Dark Knight makes $155 million in 3 days

By Scott Bowles, USA TODAY

Having shattered virtually every box-office record on the books this past weekend, The Dark Knight faces two questions as it steams into summer.
How high can it go? And, would it have gone anywhere if Heath Ledger were alive?

The second installment of the revitalized Batman franchise recorded the biggest opening in Hollywood history with $155.3 million, according to studio estimates from Nielsen EDI.

If that figure holds, the debut will beat last year's Spider-Man 3, which held the record with $151.1 million. Knight claimed other titles as well, including biggest single-day haul ($66.4 million), biggest midnight screening ($18.5 million) and best debut in IMAX ($6.4 million).

Analysts say that though it will never challenge Titanic's record $601 million total domestic haul, Knight should easily become the highest-grossing film of summer, if not the year. And if its violence doesn't keep families away, it could make a run at the top five grossing films of all time. (No. 5 is Star Wars, Episode I: The Phantom Menace with $431 million.)

"There were so many sold-out shows this weekend, it's hard to say how many people are still waiting for their turn to see it," says Steve Mason of box-office tracker FantasyMoguls.com. "This has struck a pop-culture chord we haven't seen in a while."

And much of that interest, analysts say, has to be attributed to Ledger's death. The actor, who died Jan. 22 of a prescription-drug overdose, has received unanimous praise as a psychotic, homicidal Joker.

"Yes, he was great, and the movie is one of the best of the year," says Jeff Bock, an analyst for the box-office tracking firm Exhibitor Relations. "But this movie had a debut more than three times bigger than any other Batman before it. That has everything to do with Heath Ledger, and people's morbid curiosity and wanting to be a part of the conversation."

Dan Fellman, distribution chief for Warner Bros., which released The Dark Knight, says there's more to it.

"There was a curiosity factor with the tragedy, but this was something well beyond that," he says. "Fans loved it, critics loved it. It's rare for a movie to hit on all cylinders, and there's no telling how high is high."