Movies

LOS ANGELES – Batman was higher than Hollywood's newest potheads.

The Dark Knight took in $26 million to finish as the No. 1 movie for the fourth straight weekend, beating the stoner comedy Pineapple Express, which opened in second place with $22.4 million, according to studio estimates Sunday.

The weekend haul lifted the Warner Bros. Batman sequel to No. 3 on the all-time domestic box-office charts with $441.5 million, behind only Titanic ($600.8 million) and the original Star Wars ($461 million).

The last movie to remain No. 1 for four consecutive weekends was The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King in late 2003 and early 2004, according to box-office tracker Media By Numbers. That movie did it during a much slower time of year, with nowhere near the competition The Dark Knight has faced during the summer season.

"It's almost unheard of. Summer doesn't usually afford films that much of a wide-open playing field," said Paul Dergarabedian, president of Media By Numbers.

The Dark Knight will likely surpass Star Wars to become No. 2 on the revenue chart by this coming weekend.

Since opening Wednesday, Sony's Pineapple Express had taken in $40.5 million. The action comedy stars Seth Rogen as a pot smoker on the run after he witnesses a murder, with his clueless dealer (James Franco) in tow.

While Pineapple Express was unable to dislodge The Dark Knight, Sony executives were happy with a strong No. 2 finish given the juggernaut the Batman flick has become.

The weekend's other wide release, the Warner Bros. sequel The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2, opened at No. 4 with $10.8 million, raising its total to $19.7 million since debuting Wednesday.

Here are the estimated weekend sales for the top 10 films.

Print it | Discuss it | E-mail it to a friend