The Dark Knight is kicking ass and taking names. Since its midnight showing debut, the movie has been shattering previous records and for good reason. It is nothing short of a masterpiece and unlike the crapfest that was Spiderman 3, its well deserving of the records it is breaking. It has so far broken 10 all-time records in its first 5 days of release. One has to wonder that if The Dark Knight can break so many records in 5 days, how many records will it break before bowing out of movie theaters? Its also impressive considering the movie’s non kid friendly PG rating. Realistically I doubt that it will break Titanic’s record for the #1 box office movie of all time, but it should find itself in the top 5, alongside Star Wars/Star Wars Episode 1, Shrek 2 and E.T.

Records broken:

1. Largest number of opening theaters with 4366. The previous record holder was Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s end with 4362.
2. Biggest midnight preview opening gross with $18,489,000. Star Wars Episode 3 held the previous record with $16.5 million.
3. Biggest IMAX midnight preview opening gross with $640,000.
4. Biggest one day gross of $67,165,092 (includes midnight showings), shattering Spiderman’s 3 previous record of $59,841,919.
5. Biggest opening weekend gross of $158,411,483, overshadowing the previous record of $151,116,516 held by Spiderman 3.
6. Biggest opening weekend gross for an IMAX release of $6,214,061. Again breaking Spiderman’s 3 previous record of $4,700,000.
7. Biggest Sunday single day gross of $43,596,151. Another Spiderman 3 record broken ($39,937,865).
8. Fastest movie to surpass the $200,000,000 domestically at 5 days. The previous record was 8 days, shared between 3 movies: Spiderman 2, Star Wars Episode 3 and Pirates of the Caribbean 2.
9. Biggest Monday single gross with $24 million.
10. Biggest Tuesday single gross with $20.9 million, ahead of the $15.7 million earned by Pirates of the Caribbean 2

The movie is currently voted as the #1 movie of all time on IMDB, surpassing The Godfather (1 & 2) and the Shawshank Redemption. The next ‘recently’ released movie that appears in the list is Lord of the Rings: Return of the King at #14. The Dark Knight is expected to hold the #1 position this coming weekend, even with the release of the much anticipated X-Files movie. X-Files is expected to take in between $20-30 million on its opening weekend. The Dark Knight is expected to take in between $75 million and $85 million on its second weekend of release.

Update (July 28th): To view more records broken by The Dark Knight, please see the updated The Dark Knight Still Breaking Records article.