This summer's biggest box office hit––"The Dark Knight"––reached $500 million in box office revenues to close 2008's vacation movie season.
The Christopher Nolan-helmed sequel that opened under a dark cloud following the death of one of its leading men did boffo business in theaters. Heath Ledger, who reprised Jack Nicholson's role as the arch-villain The Joker, died shortly before the film opened in theaters from an apparent drug overdose. The tragedy heightened publicity surrounding the film and gave rise to speculation that the young star would receive an Academy Award nomination for his work in the film.
Warner Brothers, the studio that produced the film, announced that "The Dark Knight" passed the half billion dollar mark Labor Day weekend, making it the second-highest grossing movie of all time, following "Titanic," which grossed just over $600 million in 1997. Factoring in the increase in ticket prices over the past decade, "The Dark Knight" would have to gross another $400 million to match "Titanic" in box office popularity.
Adjusted for inflation, The Dark Knight just squeaked into the Top 30 in the all-time list of box office gross, at 29, sandwiched above 2004's "Shrek 2" and below 1959's "Sleeping Beauty."
