The Dark Knight Box Office: $60 Million Down, Two Days Left

Posted by Neil Miller (neil@filmschoolrejects.com) on July 19, 2008

Hours ago we reported that The Dark Knight had scored its second box office record of the weekend mere hours after hitting theaters. When it opened yesterday morning, it saw screens in a record number of theaters, 4,366. When the first numbers came rolling in from midnight shows, record #2 was in the books — $18.5 million is the highest midnight opening of all-time, beating out Star Wars Episode III’s opening of $16.9 million.

Early this morning, reports began to stream in saying that The Dark Knight has, in fact, added another record in its first 24 hours of release, bringing in between $60 and $63 million on Friday — the largest single-day opening gross. This surpasses the mark set by Spider-Man 3, which took in $59.8 million on its way to the $151.1 million record setting opening weekend last May.

This will continue to fuel the fire for The Dark Knight’s record-chasing weekend. After of slew of positive praise from critics including not one, not two but three ‘A+’ grades from the reviewers on this site, as well as a marketing campaign unlike anything we’ve seen before, the film went into the weekend with records within reach. And, as a fan of the film, I can say that I am extremely happy to see it exceeding even the loftiest of predictions.

Of course, while there are still two days left in the weekend, and another $90 million or so to go before The Dark Knight takes the biggest opening weekend gross record away from Spider-Man 3, it certainly appears to be on its way.

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