The dust is still settling from what was a record breaking weekend for Hollywood, with "The Dark Knight" leading the way with over $155 million at the box office, soaring past the previous record holder from last year, "Spider-Man 3". The Christopher Nolan directed film was one of the most highly anticipated pictures of the year, and according to all accounts, did not disappoint. Beginning with it's opening day on Friday, it also pulled in a in a record $67.85 million, and continued to roll throughout the weekend, also breaking the "Spider-Man 3" record for best debut in IMAX large-screen theaters with $6.2 million.
Adding to the box office totals was "Mama Mia!", the Broadway musical set to the tunes of ABBA, starring Meryl Streep, Pierce Brosnan, Colin Firth, Stellan Skarsgard, Julie Walters and Christine Baranski. Playing to largely female audiences, it snagged second place with $27.6 million.
Last weekends box office champ, "Hellboy II: The Golden Army" dropped into fifth place with $10 million, while "Hancock" and "Journey to the Center of the Earth 3D" had solid showings with $14 million and $11.9 million, good enough for third and fourth places respectively.
All in all, Hollywood set an overall revenue record of $253 million for a three-day weekend, beating the $218.4 million haul over the weekend of July 7, 2006 when "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest" debuted and "Superman Returns" and "The Devil Wears Prada" rounded out the top three.
Last weekend's full top 10 was as follows:
1. The Dark Knight - $155.3 M
2. Mama Mia! - $27.6 M
3. Hancock - $14 M
4. Journey to the Center of the Earth 3D - $11.9 M
5. Hellboy II: The Golden Army - $10 M
6. Wall-E - $9.8 M
7. Space Chimps - $7.4 M
8. Wanted - $5.1 M
9. Get Smart - $4.1 M
10. Kung Fu Panda - $1.8 M
UPDATE (July 22): The official box office numbers are in, and it looks like The Dark Knight finished the weekend with $158,411,483.