Don't sweat it, Bad Bishop. Before the buzz about the huge pre-sales started building I had thought the darkness of the film would somewhat limit its box office and keep it in the $250-275 million range. Now, with this opening, it's assured of taking the domestic box office crown since even if it's frontloaded it should land at least in the mid-300s, and if it has good legs it could well end up in the high 300s or even over 400.
A couple of things to note: this is the fourth Batman film to set a new opening weekend record. Batman, Batman Returns, and Batman Forever all set new records when they opened in 1989, 1992, and 1995 respectively. Also, The Dark Knight will have the highest domestic gross, in unadjusted terms, in Warner Bros history.
Box Office Mojo has their weekend estimates up. Some quick takes of some of the other films we've been following:
* Hancock came in at #3 with $14 million (- 56.4%) for a total so far of $191.5 million.
* Journey to the Centre of the Earth held up pretty well, dropping 43.3% to come in at #4 with $11.9 million for a total so far of $43 million.
* Hellboy II unfortunately took a big tumble in the face of the The Dark Knight. It dropped a whopping 70.9% to take $10 million in the #5 slot, for a total so far of $56.4 million. A second weekend drop this big means that it surely won't reach $100 million domestic.
* Wall*E came in at #6 with $9.8 million (- 47.8%) for a total so far of $182.4 million.
* Wanted came in at #8 with $5.097 million (- 57.5%) for a total so far of $123.3 million.
* The Incredible Hulk dropped a massive 73.2% to take in $623,000 for a total so far of $131.7 million. It still hasn't matched the domestic take of Ang Lee's Hulk.