BoxOffice Guru :

THIS WEEKEND Fan frenzy for the Caped Crusader kept the unstoppable juggernaut The Dark Knight in the number one spot for the third weekend in a row in North America narrowly beating the new adventure sequel The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor which settled for the silver medal. However on a global scale, the Mummy sequel won the gold with $100M worldwide beating out the Batman flick's $81M. Meanwhile, Kevin Costner's latest offering Swing Vote was met with apathy as it bombed and landed in sixth place with a dismal performance.
The Joker couldn't stop stealing more cash. Warner Bros. enjoyed a superb hold for The Dark Knight which only dropped by 43% in its third outing to $42.7M, according to final studio figures. Averaging a still-muscular $10,001 per theater, the superhero sequel boosted its total to a jaw-dropping $393.8M in only 17 days and might now cross the $400M mark on Monday. The dark PG-13 actioner also broke into the top ten among all-time domestic blockbusters and now sits at number eight surpassing the $380.3M of 2005's Star Wars Episode III.
The new Batpic is holding up so well that it is now virtually guaranteed to smash the $500M barrier too. The road ahead should be promising as late summer megahits that truly please audiences tend to have low declines in August. 2006's Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest witnessed a 44% drop in its third outing at number one and its 17-day cume of $321.9M represented 76% of its eventual final. Last summer's The Bourne Ultimatum banked $164.7M by the end of its third session which accounted for 72% of its overall cume. At a similar pace, The Dark Knight would go on to approach the neighborhood of $520M for an astonishing box office run.
Internationally, The Dark Knight grossed an estimated $38M from 51 markets to boost its stellar overseas tally to $203.5M. That gives the comic book flick a worldwide cume of $597M with much more fuel still in the tank as major markets like Korea, Japan, Spain, France, Russia, and Germany have yet to open.
Opening close behind in second place was Universal's historical adventure sequel The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor which grossed $40.5M. Invading 3,760 locations, the PG-13 film averaged a solid $10,760 per site. It was the smallest debut in the franchise's history trailing the $43.4M of 1999's The Mummy and the $68.1M of 2001's The Mummy Returns. At today's ticket prices, those two figures would translate to about $60M and $85M, respectively. Dragon, which finds Brendan Fraser returning to fight ancient evil in China, was expected by many to bow at number one. Its tally was slightly lower than anticipated while Dark Knight's legs were stronger than expected. Jet Li, Maria Bello, and Michelle Yeoh were newcomers to this installment. Studio research showed that males made up 52% of the audience while 56% were 25 and older. Reviews were mostly negative.
Budgeted at $145M, Dragon Emperor got off to a potent start around the world where its release was strategically timed so the effects-driven actioner would hit the marketplace just a week ahead of the start of the Olympics in Beijing. Overseas, the film grossed $59.5M from 28 territories putting the global cume at a potent $100M. Universal is expecting to reach the vicinity of $375-400M in worldwide grosses. The previous two installments each collected $410-420M globally.