Box Office - 'Dark Knight' Wins Again, Now Third Highest-Grossing Film in U.S. History

What an unusual five days it's been at the box office. Pineapple Express broke through big time on Wednesday, setting an August record for a Wednesday release, and then trailed off quickly. And just when it looked like The Dark Knight had reigned for its last days heading into the weekend, the Batman sequel came back in a big way to claim its fourth box office victory in a row, and almost certainly its last.

With $26 million in weekend ticket sales, according to the new Box Office Mojo estimates, The Dark Knight has now amassed $441 million in 24 days. That's the third-highest total in U.S. history. (Nobody make the case for inflation, please, because I'm tired of arguing it.)The film will very likely beat Star Wars and its $460 million by this time next week, meaning it will have taken a month to become the second film to ever rake in over $465 million. As for Pineapple Express, the Wednesday opening did hurt its weekend totals, a theory we put out there on Thursday. So many people wanted to see it immediately, that by the time the weekend arrived, there was little fire left. In fact, the only day where it showed an increase was going to Friday from Thursday; the Judd Apatow-produced stoner comedy starring Seth Rogen and James Franco lost audience on Saturday and on Sunday, while The Dark Knight gained about 40% of viewers on Saturday, the day that really put the sequel over the edge. The same kind of early release blahs hit The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2, which never really got on track anyway, taking in just over $19 million over five days, and during the weekend, struggled to make $10 million. A fourth-place finish is all the film could muster, even with a near freefall by The Mummy, which held on for a third-place finish. Step Brothers continued to do good business despite the new comedy in theaters; it rounded out the weekend's top five and has earned $80 million. $100 million seems unlikely, but there's a fair chance it could enter that club in another three or four weeks. Mamma Mia! is the newest member in that club, incidentally, and internationally, the film has nearly grossed $250 million.

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Fearless Forecast - Will 'Pineapple Express' Get Higher Than 'Dark Knight'?

I guess the only question really worth asking this weekend is, "Can The Dark Knight win again?" The short answer is yes. A lot depends on Pineapple Express, the biggest new release of the weekend, but if The Dark Knight hits $24 million or more, the odds are probably in its favor. For reasons I don't understand, both Pineapple Express and Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2 have been bumped from a Friday release date to Wednesday. The Olympics start on Friday, but I was under the impression people stopped caring about the Olympics nearly 20 years ago. Correct me if I'm wrong. Still, the studios are quaking in fear that Olympic fever is going to ruin the box office, and the loser in all of that is Pineapple Express. For one thing, you know who doesn't watch the Olympics and never has? The target audience for Pineapple Express. Had it opened on Friday, it would have most likely taken down The Dark Knight, at least on that day, setting itself up for a pretty good run at the number one spot. As it is, the Wednesday opening might take some of its Friday night crowd, and in a weekend that was already going to be a pretty close battle, it may cause Pineapple to settle for second place. I wouldn't be surprised if Express won the weekend, but I'm also not going to bet against The Dark Knight here. It still has one really strong weekend left. Where would a $25 million weekend put it on the all-time list? How about third, less than $20 million away from Star Wars. Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2 isn't looking to become the number one flick this weekend, and it'll be happy to make about $20 million over its first five days, maybe a little more. Like Mamma Mia!, its audience is not the summer popcorn movie crowd, so Pants will slowly make a pretty good living as the last teenage girl movie of the season. In fact, it's probably the only teenage girl movie of the season. I don't think we'll see this one plummet in week two the way The Mummy will. Speaking of The Mummy, you know, $40 million on opening weekend isn't bad at all. And without The Dark Knight, I think that movie's at least a $46 million debut last week. Unfortunately, negative reviews will hurt it moving forward in a marketplace with the wonderfully-received Batman movie; people who have seen neither won't line up for The Mummy this weekend, and its guaranteed audience may have already passed through the turnstiles. I expect this one to tumble this weekend, battling it out with the Sisterhood for third place. The Top Five: 1 - The Dark Knight ($25 million) 2 - Pineapple Express ($23.5 million) 3 - The Mummy ($17 million) 4 - Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2 ($15 million) 5 - Step Brothers ($9 million)

Ironically, 'Mummy' Franchise Won't Die

Before the film opened in second place, accruing roughly four-fifths of the audience it was expected to, The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor was already spurring thoughts in the mind of director Rob Cohen of where the franchise could head next.

You heard me. The guy's talking Mummy Quatro. Cohen and Brendan Fraser, in the past, hinted that the Amazon might be a good place to take the series in the future, but last week, Cohen - whose best movie is probably xXx, so that should tell you something - revealed his great idea to MTV. “By taking The Mummy out of Egypt and putting it in China, by exploring a different approach to the quest for immortality, we now have it clear that the Mummy franchise can travel,” effused Cohen. I don't know what's so different. It's not like any of these mummies Rick and Evie O'Connell have raised have ever been cordial and agreeable. They all want to destroy the world. Whether they do it in Egypt or China doesn't make much of a difference.

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Box Office - 'Dark Knight' Rallies, Wins Again

If anything speaks to the staying power of The Dark Knight, it's the impressive rally it displayed on Saturday and Sunday, which according to the latest estimates released by Box Office Mojo, will be enough to give the film its third straight victory at the U.S. box office.

That didn't seem likely when we learned Friday's numbers, which indicated that The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor had staked out a $3 million lead. But the new release was unable to sustain that momentum, slipping behind The Dark Knight on both Saturday and Sunday. Remember, though, that these numbers are estimates, and the distance between the films is around a million dollars, so it's possible that The Mummy could still be crowned the weekend's champ when the actual amounts are released Monday. Step Brothers performed well for audiences wanting something other than heroes and villains, finishing third and already doubled the output of Ferrell's previous comedy, Semi-Pro. Mamma Mia! is now with $15 million of $100 million and is destined to hit around $120 million or more before it's all said and done, although it's really counting on international box office, where it has already made $140 million. Kevin Costner's Swing Vote finished out of the top five, managing only $6.3 million.

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Box Office - 'The Mummy' Opens with $15, 'Dark Knight' in Second Place

It appears that The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor will be the movie to take the box office crown away from The Dark Knight. After two record-breaking weeks, the Batman movie will most likely drop to second place, based on Friday's estimates released by Box Office Mojo. However, it's not like the bottom is just dropping out for The Dark Knight; the movie could still earn $40 million or more this weekend, and its total after 17 days could put it very close to $400 million. Needless to say, the film would be the fastest movie ever to reach that number, and bringing in over $12 million on its third Friday is pretty impressive. As for The Mummy, it enjoyed a fair but not great opening day - $15 million - which should help the threequel close in on $50 million by the end of the weekend. However, a debut in that range would probably mean this is the least successful Mummy movie (not counting the spin-off The Scorpion King), with the original earning over $150 million and The Mummy Returns surpassing $200 million in 2001. There's not much else happening in the top ten: Step Brothers remains a pretty strong option, as it's on pace to keep around half of its audience from last week's debut, meaning it will probably finish in third place and will put it within a couple days of earning back its budget. Mamma Mia! is doing just fine in The Dark Knight's shadow, and will be one of the rare $100 million musicals in another two weeks. There's bad news for Kevin Costner, as his Swing Vote has failed to get off the ground. It will probably battle it out with Eddie Murphy's Meet Dave for worst opening weekend by a major film this summer, although Meet Dave did open in around 800 more theaters. Still, a Friday night take of $1.9 million doesn't extrapolate to a very successful weekend. Getting back to The Dark Knight for a moment, because it is, after all, the story this summer, while it will lose its hold on the top spot, don't think it's all downhill from here. Over the next month, there are two pretty good opportunities for this movie to actually build on its previous weekends, or at least not lose as much from one weekend to the next as you might think. Next weekend looks good, with only Pineapple Express and Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2 arriving in over 2,000 theaters. Even if Pineapple Express opens at number one, the number of theaters dictate that it probably won't even make $30 million, and if you couple that with a Mummy movie that probably doesn't have much staying power, The Dark Knight could get a lot of repeat business by default. It might even leapfrog The Mummy into second place next weekend. Labor Day weekend will also be reasonably strong for The Dark Knight, because holiday weekends always, always give big movies a little extra kiss, no matter how long they've been in theaters. And by the time September rolls around, this should easily be the second biggest film of all time.