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LOS ANGELES - BATMAN movie The Dark Knight should soar into the box office stratosphere with its United States debut in a record number of theatres on Friday that could propel it past the US$100 million (S$135 million) mark on its opening weekend, industry watchers said.
Topping that blockbuster figure would push Dark Knight into rare air seen by only 10 other wide-release movies including Spider-Man 3 and Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest.
Already, advance ticket sales have resulted in the sell-out of nearly 1,000 showtimes, online ticket seller Fandango said.
'It's been a true phenomenon for us, we started to see interest as early as last year for this film,' said Rick Butler, chief operating officer for Fandango.
Warner Bros, the unit of Time Warner that is releasing Dark Knight, said it will debut in 4,366 theatres, edging out the record of 4,362 theatres set by Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End with its 2007 opening. That movie raked in about US$115 million on its debut weekend.
Dark Knight will hope to beat the record debut of Sony Pictures Entertainment's Spider-Man 3 in 2007, which reached US$151 million. Sony Pictures is part of Japanese electronics company Sony.
In the No. 2 spot is the US$135.6 million debut for 2006's Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest, released by the film division of The Walt Disney.
'Certainly a US$100-plus million opening weekend is in the cards,' said Paul Dergarabedian, who heads box office tracker Media by Numbers. 'I cannot imagine a movie that has been more highly anticipated than this one, at least in recent memory.'
Generally speaking, fans and critics who have seen the film in advance are giving it rave reviews especially for the performance of Heath Ledger as the deranged villain, The Joker.
On rottentomatoes.com, which aggregates reviews, Dark Knight has received a 91 per cent positive rating.
Critics say the latest movie in the Batman series is a thrilling depiction of good versus evil, picking up where 2005's Batman Begins left off.
That film was a smash hit with a worldwide gross of just about US$372 million, after opening to roughly US$49 million in the United States and Canada.
Batman Begins reshaped the series of films by going back to the character's origins, after the critical failure of 1997's Batman & Robin, the fourth instalment in a series that began with director Tim Burton's 1989 Batman.
The Dark Knight stars Christian Bale as Batman, and was directed by Christopher Nolan who made Batman Begins. -- REUTERS
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