Batman Set to Make Record First Weekend

The Dark Night pulled in $66.4 million on its first day in theaters on Friday. This opening day set a new single-day box office record, reported Reuters. The record breaks that of Spider-Man 3's set with its opening day last year, according to Reuters.

The film is also expected to break the opening weekend record of Spider-Man 3 of $151.1 million, Dan Fellman, head of distribution at Warner Bros, told Reuters. He continued by saying, "I don't see any reason why we are going to slow down." He said the success was due to the unique vision of Christopher Nolan, director, and the "outstanding" performance of the late Australian actor, Heath Ledger, in what ended up being his final performance.

The last five Batman movies to come out only averaged $47 million gross. The last Batman movie in 2005, Batman Begins, made $49 million in its first weekend in North America and made $372 million worldwide.

The Dark Night picks up where that one left off by putting Nolan and Christian Bale back together, with Bale as Batman and Heath Ledger as the Joker. There are only a few other movies that have made $100 million in their first weekend, Spider-Man 3 and Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest are two of them.