Three weeks in, The Dark Knight once again topped the weekend box office charts, its $43.8 million take placing it within spitting distance of the $400 million mark and earning it the title of fastest-grossing blockbuster in history. The second installment of Christopher Nolan's Batman reboot just barely edged out another, somewhat less distinguished sequel, The Mummy: Tomb Of The Dragon Emperor, which just missed the top spot with $42.5 million. (It did outperform Knight internationally, however.) The weekend's other, even less distinguished new release, the Kevin Costner-starring Swing Vote, flopped in at No. 6 with $6.3 million–not a good sign for Costner, who put up $20 million of his own money to finance the film.
Last week's top non-Batman performer, Step Brothers, bumped down to No. 3 with $16.3 million, a respectable second-week take that places the R-rated comedy in line to eventually cross the $100 million mark. That's a benchmark that last week's other new release, The X Files: I Want To Believe, is unlikely to hit: After a lukewarm debut last week, it suffered the biggest drop in the top 10, moving all the way down to No. 9 with $3.4 million.
The rest of the top 10 was rounded out by Mamma Mia! at No. 4 ($13.1 million), Journey To The Center Of The Earth at No. 5 ($6.9 million), Hancock at No. 7 ($5.2 million), Wall-E at No. 8 ($4.7 million), and Space Chimps at No. 10 ($2.8 million).
More detailed box-office results can be found at boxofficemojo.com.
