The Dark Knight continues its box office dominance

Ticket sales for “The Dark Knight” for the weekend ending August 3 continued to break records at the movie box office, raking in an estimated $43.8 million for its third weekend in release. The second installment of the new Batman franchise, and the sixth Batman movie since the late 1980s, may soon become the second-biggest film of all time, following “Titanic.”

“The Dark Knight,” featuring the posthumous performance of Heath Ledger that is being praised as Oscar-worthy, ruled over the premiere of “Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor,” which opened at $42.5 million. The second sequel of the Mummy series stars Brendan Fraser and Jet Li and has received only tepid reviews.

Will Ferrell’s sophomoric comedy “Step Brothers” was third with $16.3 million, followed by “Mamma Mia!” with $13.1 million, bringing the musical’s total tally to date at $88 million. “Journey to the Center of the Earth,” Fraser’s second movie in release this summer, rounded out the top five, generating $6.9 million in ticket sales.

Among the other notables, Kevin Costner’s election-year comedy “Swing Vote” pulled in a disappointing $6.3 million in its first weekend of release, and the “The X-Files: I Want to Believe,” has also been a bit of a dud this summer. The latest X-Files film only generated $3.4 million in its second weekend.

Box Office Grosses Week Ending August 1, 2008
Rank	Title	Weekend	Total Gross
1	The Dark Knight (2008)	$43.8M	$395M
2	The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor (2008)	$42.5M	$42.5M
3	Step Brothers (2008)	$16.3M	$63M
4	Mamma Mia! (2008)	$13.1M	$88M
5	Journey to the Center of the Earth (2008)	$6.88M	$73.1M
6	Swing Vote (2008)	$6.3M	$6.3M
7	Hancock (2008)	$5.2M	$216M
8	WALL·E (2008)	$4.75M	$204M
9	The X Files: I Want to Believe (2008)	$3.42M	$17.1M
10	Space Chimps (2008)	$2.84M	$22.1M