The Knight gross also powered ahead of the $55.8M opening day haul of 2006's Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest which was also a highly-anticipated star-driven sequel released in July running two-and-a-half-hours. Full opening weekend grosses reached $135.6M for Chest and $151.1M for Spider-Man 3 representing the two largest movie openings in box office history. The Dark Knight now looks ready to race past both of them.

Saturday declines are now normal for big event films on opening weekend. Given the intense upfront demand for the new Batman installment, it would not be surprising to see a drop in the neighborhood of 15% on Saturday for the new Christopher Nolan-directed actioner. A corresponding 25-30% fall on Sunday would put The Dark Knight on course to finish the weekend with a new all-time record of $155-160M. The Heath Ledger starrer would also lead the overall marketplace to the biggest weekend of ticket sales in industry history.

Elsewhere, Universal saw a solid debut for its musical Mamma Mia! which bowed to an estimated $10M on Friday. That was a bit behind the $10.9M that Hairspray collected on the same Friday a year earlier before finishing the frame with $27.5M. Meryl Streep and company should find their way to $25-28M for Mamma Mia! this weekend.

Fox offered younger children the animated comedy Space Chimps which grossed an estimated $2.5M on Friday. The G-rated pic should end the session with roughly $7M over three days.

Among holdovers, Friday-to-Friday declines were 77% for Hellboy II, 56% for Hancock, and 47% for Journey to the Center of the Earth.

For a NEW review of The Dark Knight visit The Chief Report.

Be sure to check back on Sunday for a complete weekend box office report.