Batman closes in on Star Wars and Titanic

by Rob Peters | August 10, 2008 at 02:55 pm

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Batman finished as the number one movie at the box office for the fourth straight weekend, bringing it within firing range of the top two on the all-time domestic box office charts, the Titanic and the original Star Wars.

The article notes a crucial difference in the standings, however, in that movie prices are a lot higher now than they were in the late '70s, meaning Dark Knight stats are not as impressive as they might first appear. It is only week four though.

Meanwhile, Seth Rogen's Pineapple Express quietly took second spot at the box office, bringing in a not-too-shabby $22.4 million.

"The Dark Knight" took in $26 million to finish as the No. 1 movie for the fourth straight weekend, beating the stoner comedy "Pineapple Express," which opened in second place with $22.4 million, according to studio estimates Sunday.

The weekend haul lifted the Warner Bros. Batman sequel to No. 3 on the all-time domestic box-office charts with $441.5 million, behind only "Titanic" ($600.8 million) and the original "Star Wars" ($461 million).

The last movie to remain No. 1 for four consecutive weekends was "The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King" in late 2003 and 2004, according to box-office tracker Media By Numbers. That movie did it during a much slower time of year, with nowhere near the competition "The Dark Knight" has faced during Hollywood's busy summer season.

"It's almost unheard of. Summer doesn't usually afford films that much of a wide-open playing field," said Paul Dergarabedian, president of Media By Numbers.

"The Dark Knight" should surpass "Star Wars" to become No. 2 on the revenue chart by this coming weekend.

However, the numbers reflect today's higher admission prices, and "The Dark Knight" will not approach "Star Wars" or "Titanic" in terms of actual number of tickets sold. Taking inflation into account, "The Dark Knight" would need to pull in about $900 million to match the number of tickets sold for "Titanic" and about $1.2 billion to equal "Star Wars."

Nearly an entire month after its release the Dark Knight grossed $26M, giving it a total of a whopping $442M.

Just below the latest Batman reincarnation was stoner-friendly flick Pineapple Express. Seth Rogan and James Franco team up as a pair of potheads on the run after Rogan's character Dale Denton witnesses a murder.

The Pineapple Express garnered $22.4M in its debut.