The Dark Knight hits $300M, and May Reach 'Titanic' Proportions

By Garrett Godwin

There may not be no such thing as bad publicity for Christian Bale, as the actor not only cleans up the streets of Gotham City, but also he cleans up the box office as The Dark Knight becomes the number-one movie for the second week in a row -- raking in $75.6 million.

In just 10 days, the film has already grossed $300 million -- beating 2006's Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest, which took 16 days.

Warner Bros. head of distribution Dan Fellman is anticipating that The Dark Knight will reach the $400-million mark in 18 days -- topping over 2004's Shrek 2, which took 43.

"What can you say? We've been getting a lot of repeat business coming in" he said. "Our audience is expanding, like you would expect with terrific word-of-mouth and strong reviews. Our audience is getting a little bit older, that's the good news. We're finding the younger demographic, male and female, coming back."

The sequel to 2005's Batman Begins finds the brooding superhero facing his greatest challenge in the form of the Crown Prince of Crime -- the Joker (Heath Ledger). Much of the film's buzz has been due the late actor's performance that could lead to a posthumous Oscar nomination.

If The Dark Knight keeps this up, chances are it'll surpass 1997's Oscar-winning massive epic Titanic, which still holds the record as the highest-grossing film of all time at $600 million dollars domestically.

"It's a tall order", stated Media by Numbers President Paul Dergarabedian, "but if any film has a chance to surpass that number, it's got to be 'Dark Knight'.

"Now, it's all about word-of-mouth. The first weekend, there was this huge, pent-up demand and eagerness by audiences to see this movie. Now, it's a freight train -- it seems to be unstoppable."

Source: Yahoo! News

Garrett Godwin writes for NewsBlaze from Michigan. Contact him by writing to NewsBlaze.