The Dark Knight Continues To Reign The Box Office

Its been one month since The Dark Knight opens in the silver screen but it still continues to break record after record of box office hits. For now The Dark Knight remained No. 1 at the cinemas for the fourth straight weekend, grossing $26 million and bringing its total take to $441.5 million – and making it the third top-grossing film of all time, surpassing the previous third-ranked Shrek 2, reports Variety.

Sometime this week, the movie, starring Christian Bale and the late Heath Ledger, is expected to overtake the No. 2 record box-office holder, Star Wars. (Still ranked No. 1 is Titanic, with $601 million.)

Pineapple Express was the weekend's second best-performing movie, with $22.4 million. It was followed in the Top 5 by The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor; $16.1 million; The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2, $10.8 million; and Step Brothers, $8.9 million.

No. 6 was Mamma Mia!, with $8.1 million – enough to put it over the $100-million mark.

The Dark Knight Breaks Records In Just Ten Days

The Dark Knight had been breaking box office records since its showing day. It is now Hollywood's shining knight.The Batman sequel, starring Christian Bale and Heath Ledger, shattered another box-office benchmark this weekend – reaching beyond the $300 million mark in a mere 10 days.

The movie grossed $75.6 million in its second weekend in theaters, bringing its North American box-office total to $314,245,000, Warner Bros. head of distribution Dan Fellman tells the Associated Press.

The number breaks the record established by 2006's Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest, which hit $300 million after 16 days.

Fellman says Dark Knight could conceivably reach the $400-million mark in about 18 days – placing it ahead of Shrek 2's 43-day record in 2004.

Hold on to your life preservers – The Dark Knight might also surpass 1997's Titanic as the highest-grossing film in U.S. history, according to Paul Dergarabedian, president of Media By Numbers. That sinking-ship saga, starring Leonardo Di Caprio, made $600,788,188 domestically.

Rounding out this weekend's top five at the box office were Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly in Step Brothers, with an estimated $30 million; Meryl Streep in Mamma Mia!, $17.9 million; David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson in The X-Files: I Want to Believe, $10.2 million; and Brendan Fraser in Journey to the Center of the Earth, $9.4 million.