WILL FERRELL - KNIGHT SLAYS ANOTHER RECORD

The Dark Knight lithely scaled another difficult hurdle at the box office this weekend, easily becoming the first movie in history to earn $300 million in 10 days. The Warner Bros. movie took in an estimated $75.6 million domestically to bring its total to $314 million since its debut on July 18, according to box-office trackers Media by Numbers. The Will Ferrell comedy Step Brothers opened in second place with about $30 million, while another new film, The X-Files: I Want to Believe earned an unbelievably low $10 million (although a Fox spokesman maintained that the figure was "within our reasonable expectations"). Some analysts marveled at the continued strength of The Dark Knight , with several noting that it was doing an amazing amount of repeat business. The film may not be done setting box-office records, as Media by Numbers President Paul Dergarabedian observed in an interview with Bloomberg News. He predicted that the film would become the first to hit $400 million in 18 days. "We're looking here at what could be Titanic -style numbers of a $600-million domestic box office," he said.

The top ten films for the weekend, according to studio estimates compiled by Media by Numbers: 1. The Dark Knight, $75.63 million; 2. Step Brothers, $30 million; 3. Mamma Mia! $17.9 million; 4. The X-Files: I Want to Believe, $10.2 million; 5. Journey to the Center of the Earth , $9.4 million; 6. Hancock, $8.2 million; 7. WALL-E, $6.3 million; 8. Hellboy II: The Golden Army , $4.9 million; 9. S pace Chimps , $4.4 million; 10. Wanted, $2.7 million.

28/07/2008