Latest box office numbers are now in.

The weekend box office for The Dark Knight slid by 52% to $76 million. Huge numbers with a substantial slide compared to last weekend. But, this was not nearly as steep as the 63% decline that Spider-Man 3 experienced last year, and well within the normal range for summer blockbusters. Plus, the audiences for the second weekend skewed older and came to the theaters because of word of mouth.

The Dark Knight is now well over $300 million, having reached that milestone in only 10 days (the previous record holder, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest took 16 days to go over $300 million). Warner is now projecting that The Dark Knight will reach $400 million in 18 or 19 days, which would set another record, breaking the 43 days that Shrek 2 took to reach $400 million.

If that happens, then it be an interesting watch to see if The Dark Knight has enough legs to catch Titanic as the all-time box office record holder. Some speculation is already putting The Dark Knight on track to come close to Titanic $600+ million domestic box office haul.

http://network.nationalpost.com/np/b...scars-too.aspx

Personally, I think it will stop short. Even so, The Dark Knight looks very likely to become only the second movie to ever break $500 million at the box office.

Titanic was a unique phenomenon that I don't think I'll ever see again. The movie was ridiculed and panned by nearly everyone who saw the early rough cuts, and the buzz was that James Cameron was headed towards a financial disaster that would eclipse Heaven's Gate many times over (since Titanic at that time was by far the most expensive movie ever made).

When the movie opened to only so-so box office totals and mixed reviews, the death watch was still on. But, then the movie caught on, word-of-mouth was good, and the week-to-week box office declines were close to nil -- something that almost never happens with wide releases. As the weeks went on, you had audiences going for repeat showings week after week, and the lines around theaters went unabated for months. IIRC, Titanic was the #1 movie for nearly 4 straight months, which had not occurred in decades.

The only movie in recent memory that built an audience into a sustained surge week after week was The Sixth Sense, which became the #1 movie after it had already been in theaters for two months.

With the DVD and now Blu-ray such an important part of a studio's finances, I wonder how long Warner will let The Dark Knight stay in theaters if say they wanted to ramp up the home video release for the holidays. Generally, a long theatrical run benefits the theater owners more than the studios, so it will be interesting to see if The Dark Knight will make a run at Titanic.

http://www.boxofficemojo.com/alltime/domestic.htm