Batman wins weekend box office again, nears new record

Batman blockbuster “The Dark Knight” conquered the North American box office for a third straight weekend and was close to smashing the record for the fastest film to gross 400 million dollars, estimates showed Sunday.

Director Christopher Nolan’s follow-up to 2005’s “Batman Begins” grabbed another 43.8 million dollars over the weekend, pushing its three-week take to 394.9 million dollars, according to box-office tracker Exhibitor Relations.

The Warner Bros. film already seized the record for best opening and second weekends — 158.4 million dollars and 75.2 million dollars — and became the fastest film to reach the 200 million and 300 million dollar marks.

DreamWorks’ animated film “Shrek 2″ holds the record for quickest to 400 million dollars, reaching the figure in 43 days.

“The Dark Knight,” which stars Christian Bale as Batman and the late Heath Ledger in a widely acclaimed turn as the villainous Joker, has been in US theaters for just 16 days.

The Caped Crusader fell short of the record for a third weekend, however, with “Spider-Man” hanging on to the 45 million dollar mark.

Batman’s continuing dominance left another potential summer blockbuster, “The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor,” with just a modest 42.5 million dollars take in its opening weekend.

The third installment of the adventure series stars Brendan Fraser as an explorer fighting in China to save the world from a resurrected emperor, played by Jet Li.

“Step Brothers,” starring Will Farrel and John C. Reilly as two middle-aged men still living at home when their respective widowed parents meet and get married, was in third place with 16.3 million dollars in its second weekend.

The ABBA musical “Mamma Mia!” took the fourth spot with 13.1 million dollars, followed by another Fraser-starring adventure, “Journey to the Center of the Earth,” which raked in 6.9 million dollars.

The political comedy “Swing Vote,” starring Kevin Costner an apathetic American who somehow ends up having to cast the deciding vote in the US presidential election, opened in sixth place with 6.3 million dollars.

The Will Smith superhero flick “Hancock” dropped one spot to seventh place with 5.2 million dollars, while the animated hit “Wall-E” took 4.7 million dollars and the eighth spot.

“The X-Files: I Want to Believe” was in ninth place with 3.4 million dollars, ahead of the animated comedy “Space Chimps” with 2.8 million dollars.

“Hellboy II: The Golden Army” and “Wanted” rounded up the top 12 with 2.5 million and 1.3 million dollars, respectively.