Movies

The Dark Knight just won't budge, as the year's biggest hit held on to the top spot for the third consecutive week. It's the first movie to accomplish that feat since National Treasure 2: Book of Secrets stayed on top the last two weekends of 2007 and the first one of this year. Of the new releases, The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor fared the best with $40.5 million.

The Dark Knight isn't just breaking records, it's obliterating them. The latest is the fastest to $400 million, which the film checked off its list on Tuesday. It only took DK 18 days to do it, making previous record holder Shrek 2 look positively pedestrian for taking 43 days to get there.

What's a good indicator that a movie might be a bomb? One clue is if its plot is as preposterous as a sci-fi movie, but it features no actual aliens, robots or space ships. That was the case with Swing Vote, in which the presidential election comes down to one man's vote. (Come on, people – is the 2000 election really that fuzzy?) The $6.2 million it earned would seem to indicate that most moviegoers opted to seek their fantasy story lines elsewhere.

Swami shouldn't step in the way of runaway trains.

Prediction: The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor unseats The Dark Knight with a $51 million opening.

Result: Dark Knight edged out Mummy by about $2 million.

Prediction: The Dark Knight earns $42 million in weekend three, falling to the No. 2 spot.

Result: Dead on for the money, just missed the spot.

It's common that blockbusters will decrease their grosses approximately by half each week of release. So far, The Dark Knight has stuck to that formula pretty closely, earning $158 million, then $75 million and then $42 million last weekend. So if the formula sticks ...

Prediction: The Dark Knight is finally unseated, earning $21 million.

Would you believe that Batman could fall victim to a couple of potheads? Pineapple Express and its Judd Apatow pedigree seem a good bet to unseat our hero, considering last year's August film from the reigning king of comedy, Superbad, pulled in $33 million in its opening weekend.

Prediction: Pineapple Express earns $27 million and the No. 1 spot.

Stephen Becker

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