Warner Bros. Pictures’ The Dark Knight added $23.2 million on Friday to bring its eight-day total to a record $261.8 million. Christopher Nolan’s Batman Begins follow-up earned an impressive $18.4 million on Wednesday and $16.5 million on Thursday as well.
The massive hit for the studio is way ahead of the previous eight-day record holder, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest, which had collected $214.6 million after the same amount of days. The Dark Knight could cross the $300 million mark in 10 days, faster than current record holder “Dead Man’s Chest,” which did it in 16 days. The movie will also pass up Iron Man and Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull in a matter of days to become the top grossing film of 2008, domestically.
The Dark Knight is already up to 39th on the all-time domestic blockbuster list. We still don’t have any more international numbers except for the initial $41.3 million it earned last weekend, but that should change Sunday.
Also on Friday, Columbia Pictures’ new comedy Step Brothers, starring Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly, earned a strong $11.8 million from 3,094 theaters in its first day.
It was followed in third by Universal’s musical Mamma Mia! with $5.5 million. The movie has collected $50.4 million in eight days.
Fox’s The X-Files: I Want to Believe bombed out of the gate, however, as the new movie only took in $4 million from 3,185 theaters its first day.
Stay tuned for the full weekend estimates tomorrow!
