Half a billion dollars domestic in 45 days.The Dark Knight crosses the $500 million mark in just 1.5 months.

The Dark Knight officially crossed the $500 million mark this morning, ending up with $502 million by weekend's end. Considering it ended Saturday with about $499 million, I'm surprised Warner didn't find a couple hundred-grand to make it 44 days. No matter, the real noteworthy thing here is that The Dark Knight made $500 million in two days more than it took Shrek 2 to make it to $400 million (Batman did that in an inexplicable 18 days). Oh, and it's new global total is $919 million (#10 all time, it'll be number 6 by next weekend). While the opening weekend record and related opening day records may fall soon enough, I don't think we are going to see these kind of long term numbers for a long time. Truly amazing.

Scott Mendelson