Batman
sequel
The Dark Knight
and pop musical adaptation
Mama Mia
opened over the weekend to set very different box-office records, according to preliminary studio estimates.
Starring Christian Bale for a second time as billionaire Bruce Wayne and his superhero alter ego,
The Dark Knight
lit up cinema cash registers with $155.3 million in three-day weekend ticket sales, shattering the $151.1 million Friday-Sunday record of
Spider-Man 3
set in 2007.
The Dark Knight
was fueled by excellent critical reactions particularly for a comic-book adaptation, building on expectations from 2005's
Batman Begins
, which successfully relaunched the Batman movie franchise, and curiosity for the last performance of co-star Heath Ledger. The Australian native, who plays the villainous Joker opposite Bale, died in January of a drug overdose.
Meanwhile,
Mama Mia
, a screen adaptation of the Broadway show featuring songs from Swedish 1970s pop icons Abba, set a record for a movie musical with a three-day gross of $27.6 million. It stars Meryl Streep and Pierce Brosnan in the story of a young woman's wedding and her mother's ex-lovers.