The Dark Knight is getting mothballed.
With Watchmen moving into megaplexes, Warner Bros. has pulled the Christopher Nolan-helmed Batman film from theaters after a 33-week run that saw the superhero epic gross $553.3 million domestically, per Box Office Mojo, a haul second only to Titanic's $600.8 million.
Officially, The Dark Knight is still playing in about 50 theaters across the country, but Warner Bros. has stopped tracking the film, essentially sending it into retirement. With Nolan taking a break before commencing work on another Christian Bale-fronted sequel, Batman won't be back in theaters until at least 2010.
But the latest Gotham City go-round put several notches in the old utility belt.
The Dark Knight became just the fourth film to surpass the billion-dollar mark at the worldwide box office, following Titanic, The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King and Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest.
The flick was the most attended film since George Lucas suckered audiences into 1999's Star Wars: Episode I—The Phantom Menace, according to Box Office Mojo's head ticker tracker, Brandon Gray. The Dark Knight also ranks as the biggest IMAX release ever, with $49.9 million. It's also one of the biggest sequels ever made.
"Return of the King grossed more worldwide, but in terms of sequels, this was a far more impressive performance, because one of the primary ways one judges a sequel is how it performs compared to its predecessor," explains Gray.
"For instance, Terminator 2 grossed five times its predecessor, but in that instance the [original Terminator] was not a blockbuster. Yet the sequel was," he continues. "In the realm of blockbuster sequels, where it’s much more difficult to maintain an audience, Dark Knight appears to be king."
Batman Begins earned $205.3 million in North America during its 2005 run, a hefty sum that was more than doubled by The Dark Knight.
Gray says that Heath Ledger's Oscar-winning turn as the Joker, arguably the most popular villain in comics lore, helped boost the audience.
Gray also notes that, when adjusted for inflation, The Dark Knight would rank 27th among the top-grossing films of all time.
The studio's new comics-based Watchmen, meanwhile, doesn’t look like it'll be challenging Batman for the record books.
The $150 million opus tallied $55.7 million in its opening weekend, well behind The Dark Knight's record-smashing $158.4 million.