Box Office Review: Record-breaker!

Once again, Batman flouts the law in his pursuit of vigilante justice. | Photo courtesy of Warner Brothers

Is there anyone in America who didn't see The Dark Knight this weekend? The second chapter in director Chris Nolan's reboot of the Batman franchise grossed a stunning $155.4M this weekend, eclipsing the old record of $151.1M set by Spider-Man 3 in 2007. In a cagey piece of counter-programming by Universal, Mamma Mia! brought in a higher than expected $27.6M, helping the overall box-office for the weekend surge to another record-breaking $250M. After that it was Hancock ($14M/$191.5M), Journey to the Center of the Earth 3D ($11.9M/$43M) and a steeply dropping Hellboy 2: The Golden Army ($10M/$56.4M).

The second half of the top 10 was led by the winsome Wall-E ($9.8M/$182.4M) which topped clumsily animated newcomer Space Champs ($7.3M). Hold-overs filled out the rest of the roster: the terrible Wanted ($5M/$123.3M), the decent Get Smart ($4M/$119.5M) and the cute Kung Fu Panda ($1.7M/$206.5M). In limited release, Transsiberian averaged a robust $17,600 per theater in two venues while Lou Reed's Berlin opened to a fairly mediocre $3825 average, also in two venues.