THE MUMMY - KNIGHT AND MUMMY IN TIGHT RACE

KNIGHT AND MUMMY IN TIGHT RACE

Warner Bros.' The Dark Knight remained the No. 1 movie at the domestic box office for the third weekend in a row, taking in an estimated $43.8 million and edging out the debut of Universal's The Mummy 3 Tomb Of The Dragon Emperor , which took in $42.4 million. Mummy bested Knight on a per-theater basis, however, coming in with an average of $11,303 at 3,760 theaters versus $9,939 for Knight at 4,266 theaters. The results left Knight sitting on the edge of $400 million at $395 million after 17 days in release. Many analysts predicted the film could cross the magic number by today (Monday), it's 18th day in release, thereby setting yet another record. Previously the record for hitting $400 million in ticket sales in the shortest amount of time is held by last year's Shrek, which did it in 43 days. Many analysts have also begun predicting that the movie has a strong possibility of surpassing Titanic , which holds the record as the biggest earner of all time with $601 million. The only other film to open wide over the weekend was Kevin Costner's Swing Vote , which audiences voted down with just $6.3 million.

The top ten films for the weekend, according to studio estimates compiled by Media by Numbers 1. The Dark Knight , $43.8 million; 2. The Mummy Tomb of the Dragon Emperor, $42.5 million; 3. Step Brothers, $16.3 million; 4. Mamma Mia!, $13.1 million; 5. Journey to the Center of the Earth, $6.9 million; 6. Swing Vote , $6.3 million; 7. Hancock , $5.2 million; 8. WALL-E , $4.7 million; 9. The X-Files I Want to Believe, $3.4 million; 10. Space Chimps, $2.8 million.

04/08/2008