The Dark Knight Rises Breaks $300 Million

Tragedy-scarred film is third-fastest to reach box-office milestone, but still running behind The Avengers and Dark Knight

By Joal Ryan Aug 01, 2012 6:47 PMTags
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The Dark Knight Rises crossed $300 million at the domestic box office Tuesday.

The Batman sequel needed just 12 days in theaters to reach the milestone.

Only two other films in Hollywood history got there faster: And, yes, one of those films was The Avengers, and, yes, the other was The Dark Knight.

Dark Knight Rises tops box office for second weekend

The Avengers, the year's biggest hit, and the third-biggest-grossing movie of all-time, blew past $300 million in a stunningly brief nine days, and stood at about $390 million after 12 days, per BoxOfficeMojo.com stats

The Dark Knight, released in 2008, crossed $300 million in 10 days. Its 12-day total was about $334 million.

The Dark Knight Rises, the third and final film from Christopher Nolan's Caped Crusader cycle, was at $304 million as of Tuesday, per studio estimates.

The new film opened July 20, grossing a whopping $30.6 million from midnight screenings, the second-largest such launch on record, behind only last summer's Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2.

But tragedy struck fast, and struck hard. A mass shooting at an opening day, midnight show in Aurora, Colo., left 12 dead, and apparently had a chilling effect on all of that weekend's box office.

In the aftermath, The Dark Knight Rises has, outside of opening day, run behind the pace of its predecessor. The day-to-day gap, however, was tightening. In its 12th day in release, The Dark Knight grossed $9.6 million; The Dark Knight Rises took in $8.8 million.

The Dark Knight Rises is currently the year's No. 3-grossing movie domestically, behind The Avengers ($616 million) and The Hunger Games ($406 million). Worldwide, it's at $556 million, per BoxOffice.com.