The Dark Knight Becomes Summer’s Top Grosser

In Day 11, The Dark Knight surpassed Iron Man to become 2008’s highest grossing film plus the superhero sequel cracked the all-time Top 20 in the process. Warner Bros. generated $10.5M on Monday to raise its unbelievable cume to $324.3M which was more than enough to soar past Marvel’s metal man which has taken in $315M to date since its early May bow. Knight also climbed to number 18 on the all-time domestic blockbusters chart just ahead of Shrek the Third which banked $321M last summer.

Monday’s gross was down 57% from last Monday’s towering $24.5M haul. Given its current pace, Knight might be able to reach the $350M mark by the end of its second week of release. That would mean a jump up to number 13 on the all-time list ahead of The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers by the time the third weekend begins.

As if it hasn’t broken enough records, The Dark Knight also became the top-grossing blockbuster in Warner Bros. history surpassing the $317.6M of 2001’s Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone. Ticket prices were lower back then, but the new Batman adventure will still be able to zoom past the boy wizard in admissions in the coming days.The Joker and friends are on course to boost the cume to roughly $390M by the end of this coming weekend and then blast through the $400M mark mid-next week.