'Dark Knight' brightens box-office outlook

LOS ANGELES, July 20 (UPI) -- "The Dark Knight," the new Batman movie from Hollywood, shattered records and led the U.S. box office back from a bit of a summer slump, industry analysts said.

The Warner Bros. and Legendary Pictures released grossed an estimated $155.4 million in its first weekend, outdoing the previous record holder, "Spider-Man 3," which took in $151.1 million when it opened in May 2007.

Overall, the domestic box office collected $250 million in ticket sales, easily surpassing the old record for largest total three-day gross, $218.4 million, set in June 2007, Daily Variety reported.

The new Meryl Streep musical, "Mama Mia!" opened at $27.6 million and holdovers such as "Hancock" and "Journey to the Center of the Earth" continued to perform well, helping the box-office to a 64 percent improvement over the grosses for the corresponding week in 2007.

Overall grosses had been lagging substantially behind 2007 figures, but this weekend's numbers virtually erased the deficit, Variety said.

However, box-office analysts said there were some downbeat results, with the family comedy "Space Chimps" opening to just $7.3 million and "Hellboy II: The Golden Army" losing 71 percent of its opening weekend gross.

"The Dark Knight" set records for opening day ($67.8 million) and midnight showings ($18.5 million).