Indeks
Time Warner Inc.'s Batman saga ``The Dark Knight'' is set today, a month after it was released, to surpass the original ``Star Wars'' as the second highest- grossing domestic film of all time.
``Star Wars'' earned $461 million for News Corp.'s 20th Century Fox studio in the domestic -- U.S. and Canadian -- market after its May 1977 release, box-office tracker Media By Numbers LLC said in an e-mailed statement. As of yesterday, ``Dark Knight'' had $459.6 million in receipts since its July 18 debut.
Those numbers have lifted Time Warner to first place in 2008 ticket sales among studios with $1.31 billion, and may help the film industry break last year's record of $9.68 billion. ``Dark Knight'' has topped the box-office chart four times in as many weeks, making it the first movie since 2003's ``The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King'' to do so.
``For this movie to do what it did in 30 days is truly amazing,'' Paul Dergarabedian, president of Media By Numbers, said in an interview. ``This movie continues knocking down records left and right, and it's unparalleled in movie history.''
`Titanic'
The movie surpassed $400 million in ticket sales in 18 days on Aug. 5, cementing its place as Hollywood's fastest moneymaker. The film broke the previous mark of 43 days set by ``Shrek 2'' in 2004. The movie had previously bested the record for biggest opening day, $67.2 million, and the largest opening weekend at $158.4 million.
Viacom Inc.'s ``Titanic'' is the No. 1 all-time domestic film, with sales of $601 million.
In ``The Dark Knight,'' Christian Bale's Batman ponders his future as a crimefighter as the Joker, played by the late Heath Ledger, terrorizes Gotham City.
The film is a sequel to the 2005 release ``Batman Begins,'' also starring Bale, which had $205.3 million in sales from theaters in the U.S. and Canada. Both films were directed and co-written by Christopher Nolan.
``Star Wars'' earned $461 million for News Corp.'s 20th Century Fox studio in the domestic -- U.S. and Canadian -- market after its May 1977 release, box-office tracker Media By Numbers LLC said in an e-mailed statement. As of yesterday, ``Dark Knight'' had $459.6 million in receipts since its July 18 debut.
Those numbers have lifted Time Warner to first place in 2008 ticket sales among studios with $1.31 billion, and may help the film industry break last year's record of $9.68 billion. ``Dark Knight'' has topped the box-office chart four times in as many weeks, making it the first movie since 2003's ``The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King'' to do so.
``For this movie to do what it did in 30 days is truly amazing,'' Paul Dergarabedian, president of Media By Numbers, said in an interview. ``This movie continues knocking down records left and right, and it's unparalleled in movie history.''
`Titanic'
The movie surpassed $400 million in ticket sales in 18 days on Aug. 5, cementing its place as Hollywood's fastest moneymaker. The film broke the previous mark of 43 days set by ``Shrek 2'' in 2004. The movie had previously bested the record for biggest opening day, $67.2 million, and the largest opening weekend at $158.4 million.
Viacom Inc.'s ``Titanic'' is the No. 1 all-time domestic film, with sales of $601 million.
In ``The Dark Knight,'' Christian Bale's Batman ponders his future as a crimefighter as the Joker, played by the late Heath Ledger, terrorizes Gotham City.
The film is a sequel to the 2005 release ``Batman Begins,'' also starring Bale, which had $205.3 million in sales from theaters in the U.S. and Canada. Both films were directed and co-written by Christopher Nolan.
