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For perspective, consider the fact that Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End fell 9.5% to $34,121,377 on its first Sunday...and that was over Memorial Day weekend, meaning its Sunday was holiday inflated. Then, it fell 26.5% to $25,069,370 on its first Monday, Memorial Day. The Dark Knight has almost matched that result with larger scale numbers (it has earned roughly $42 million more than At World's End in the same Friday-to-Monday period) sans the benefit of holiday box office inflation. As a point of consideration about the explosive box office performance we are witnessing, consider this. If we take out The Dark Knight's record-setting Friday performance, its next three days still total combined receipts of $115,739,704, a total surpassing Spider-Man's 2002 record-setting opening weekend of $114,844,116. The Dark Knight's Saturday-to-Monday total would be the fifth largest opening ever and this sublime performance comes on the heels of the biggest box office day on record.

The Dark Knight is a foregone conclusion to become the fastest movie to $200 million, a feat it may accomplish tomorrow. Were that to occur, it would break the record by a full three days, from eight all the way down to five. Just to give you some perspective on how much of a runaway train its Sunday/Monday has been, the other five largest openings of all-time are the afore-mentioned Spider-Man, Spider-Man 3, Pirates of the Caribbean 2 and 3, and Shrek the Third. After four days in theaters, Spider-Man's box office tally was $125,878,901. Spider-Man 3 was at $161,401,784, Pirates 2 was at $153,774,825, Pirates 3 was at $153,042,234 (including the Thursday sneaks), and Shrek the Third was at $132,168,748. The Dark Knight is at $182,904,796. Just take a moment to look at those numbers again. There are only 28 films in box office history that have earned $300+ million domestically. I just listed five of them. None of these is within $20 million of Heath Ledger's last movie after its first four days in release. The Dark Knight is a juggernaut to a historically unprecedented degree.

Combined box office receipts for the top ten tallied $36,978,264. Yes, this is the biggest weekday of the summer. It also means The Dark Knight earned $24,493,313 while the other nine films managed roughly half of that at $12,484,951. If you go to a movie theater right now and order a ticket for something other than The Dark Knight, the vendor will look at you funny.

Daily Box Office for Monday, July 21, 2008
Rank	Film	Distributor	Daily Gross	Weekly Change	Running Total
1	The Dark Knight	Warner Bros. Pictures	$24,493,313	New	$182,904,796
2	Mamma Mia!	Universal	$4,093,125	New	$31,844,365
3	Hancock	Sony/Columbia	$1,684,785	- 55.8%	$193,228,764
4	Journey to the Center of the Earth	Warner Bros. Pictures	$1,624,423	- 40.4%	$45,129,135
5	WALL•E	Walt Disney Pictures	$1,425,526	- 44.7%	$184,158,235
6	Hellboy II: The Golden Army	Universal Pictures	$1,172,380	- 68.5%	$57,699,265
7	Space Chimps	20th Century Fox	$987,040	New	$8,168,414
8	Wanted	Universal	$656,910	- 58.8%	$123,979,545
9	Get Smart	Warner Bros.	$558,395	- 45.4%	$120,167,090
10	Kung Fu Panda	DreamWorks	$282,367	- 58.8%	$206,898,748
Box office data supplied by Exhibitor Relations

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