The Dark Knight continues to smash its competition and records in its 4th weekend in theaters. Over the past weekend, TDK remained in the #1 spot for a 4th weekend, a feat that was last accomplished by Lord of the Rings back in 2003. What’s even more impressive is that TDK is able to do this smack in the middle of summer blockbuster releases. LotR did it in the fall/winter, when few blockbusters are released.

The second Batman installment by Nolan took in over $26 million this past weekend, pushing it past Shrek 2 into the 3rd spot of all time boxoffice grosses, with a total of $441.6 million. It is only a little over $19 million short of overtaking the #2 spot long held by the original Star Wars. Experts predict that it should overtake Star Wars sometime before next weekend is over.

However, TDK is not expected to retain its #1 spot at the box office next weekend, with the release of the much anticipated comedy Tropic Thunder and the Star Wars Clone Wars animated flick.

The Dark Knight continued to dominate at the box office this weekend, holding on to the #1 spot for the 3rd weekend in a row. Batman and the Joker managed to fend off the second Mummy sequel by raking in almost $44.5 million. Unfortunately it did not surpass the previous record holder, Spiderman 3, which had accumulated $45 million during its third weekend. As of Sunday night, this placed The Dark Knight at #8 in the all-time box office gross with $393 million.

On Monday it also surpassed the $400 million mark, making it the fastest movie to reach that milestone. The record was previously held by Shrek 2, which took over 43 days to reach that mark. This means that The Dark Knight, having reached the $400 million mark in just 18 days of release, did it 60% faster.

My wife and I attended the opening of Carnivale Lune Bleue on Friday night in Kars, Ontario. Lune Bleue is a trip back in time to an authentic 1930s carnival, complete with a freakshow, a circus performance, a ferris wheel and games of chance.

We arrived around 6:15pm in the heart of Kars, where we lined up before entering the grounds. We had to wait for a ribbon cutting ceremony scheduled for 6:30, but that was running a little behind schedule due to a tardy mayor. As we waited, we were entertained by the grounds Master of Ceremony who was completely dressed from head to toe in 1930s garb, which included an old fashion cone bullhorn.

The ribbon cutting ceremony finally concluded around 6:40pm, after which we were whisked onto the carnival grounds. It was a little disappointed to find that a number of attractions weren’t ready yet. The Thrills and Skills tent which was supposed to house a 1930’s carny arcade was completely barren. There was no games of chance; no knocking down of milk bottles, no ring tosses, no shooting gallery.

The first attraction that we visited was the Ten-In-One tent where I eagerly awaited the start of the authentic freakshow Carnival Diablo. This sideshow has been in existence for the last 14 years, entertaining crowds across Canada. We were first introduced by the master of ceremony who called himself Nikolai Diablo. The first trick was a skit that derived from the russian roulette game. Diablo invited a member of the audience to hide a 9 inch long spike under one of 4 paper bags. Diablo, seemingly not knowing which bag had the spike,proceeded to smash 3 of the bags with his hand, always picking an empty bag.

We were also entertained by the strongman Mighty Leviticus who bent an iron bar between his teeth, served as a human dart board and suffered at the hands of Diablo in an electric chair. Also on the stage was Istvan Betyar, a world renowned sword swallower. The crowd gasped and clapped as he swallowed a 24″ french corkscrew sword, and simultaneously swallowing 2 broadswords. Diablo himself also entertained the crowd by seemingly swallowing razor blades, performing a fire eating act and piercing his tongue with a shark hook and then proceeding to lift a basket of rocks with his tongue.

45 minutes after the show began we were escorted into another tent, The Big Top, which is the original tent used in the first ever world performance by the Cirque du Soleil. We beared witness to a human circus, the Cirque Maroc. The acrobats in Cirque Maroc are all alumni from the Cirque du Soleil and Ringling Brothers. We were amazed by watching these acrobats performing breathtaking feats which included high wire acts, a couple of trapeze performances, a contortionist performance, a hoop show, all wrapped around a story filled with dances and a lot of comedic moments. These performances were flawless in their execution and left the crowd amazed and wanting more.

After the 1 hour long show, we briefly walked the carnival grounds. We skipped the Tropical Terrors tent which was holding the Great Snakes of the World Show as my wife has a big fear of snakes. I admired the ferris wheel, which is an authentic 1917 Eli Bridge ferris wheel. I only admired it from afar as the lineup for the ride was long and we were both a little tired.

On our way back to the car we also passed the carousel, another authentic piece of a 1930’s carnival. The vintage carousel dates back to 1938. Near the gate exits also sat a 1930s bus, the Clairvoyant Caravan, where you can have your fortunes read by either a Tarot reading or a palm reading.

The carnival also includes the Congress of Wonder, a tent filled with authentic early 1900 carnival artifacts, an outdoor restaurant entitled the Cookhouse, a High Striker and a Coin Toss.

As much as we enjoyed ourselves, I’m not sure the 60$ a ticket price is fully worth it. At 120$ for a couple, I find that price a little steep for what you get. This is not a cheap outing for a family of 4! I think it would have been more sensible if the price was in the 30$ to 40$ range. I’m sure at that price range the carnival would attract more people. We can’t really complain though, as my wife was given the tickets for free at her workplace.

All in all, I enjoyed our night out at Carnivale Lune Bleue.  If you enjoy carnivals/fairs, and you can afford the high ticket prices, this is one that you shouldn’t pass up. Just don’t do like we did and forget the bug spray!

The Dark Knight is still breaking records in its second week of release. It has grossed more in 10 days than any other Batman movies’ entire silver screen run. At this rate,TDK will come close to wrestling the title of most financially successful movie of all time from Titanic.

TDK has become the fastest movie to reach $300 million in an amazingly short 10 days. The previous record holder was Pirates of the Caribbean 2 which took a full 16 days to reach that mark. It also broke the record for highest grossing 2nd weekend, pulling in $75,166,466, surpassing the previous record holder Shrek 2, which had $72 million.

So far, The Dark Knight has raked in $313,781,677 domestically and over $355.5 million in international releases. This last number is sure to grow as the movie has not been released everywhere internationally.

Experts are forecasting that this Batman sequel will reach the $400 million mark at 18 days of release. The previous record being Shrek 2, which took a full 43 days to get to that number.

For a list of other records that The Dark Knight has broken, see my previous article The Dark Knight Smashing Records.

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.