Surprise, surprise!!  So many factors in play to make this a record breaking opening:  Heath Ledger’s final performance, the history of Batman itself and let’s not forget the hype leading up to it!!!

The movie set a one day box office record of $66 Million outdoing the record of $59.8 million opening day set last year by Spider-Man 3.  There is hopeful speculation that it will surpass the opening weekend record of $151.1 million, also held by Spider-Man 3.

The Dark Knight has already smashed the record of the previous Batman instalment Batman Begins, which only took in $48.7 million in its first three days back in 2005.

The president of box office tracker Media By Numbers, Paul Dergarabedian:

“We’ve really never seen anything like this.”   ”The death of a fine actor taken in his prime, a legendary performance, and a movie that lives up to all the hype. That all combined to create these record-breaking numbers.”

The buzz before Heath Ledger’s desk was already high for Dark Knight and his subsequent death only further fueled that buzz.

Have you seen it yet?  Do you plan on it?

Source