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‘Dark Knight’ races to record

Christian Bale is shown as Batman in “The Dark Knight.” The mythical Gotham City - long assumed to be an allegorical Big Apple - is unmistakably based on Chicago. (Associated Press / The Spokesman-Review)
Associated Press
Christian Bale is shown as Batman in “The Dark Knight.” The mythical Gotham City - long assumed to be an allegorical Big Apple - is unmistakably based on Chicago. (Associated Press / The Spokesman-Review)

LOS ANGELES – Batman has sent Spidey packing as king of Hollywood’s box-office superheroes.

“The Dark Knight” took in a record $155.34 million in its first weekend, topping the previous best of $151.1 million for “Spider-Man 3” in May 2007 and pacing Hollywood to its biggest weekend ever, according to studio estimates Sunday.

“We knew it would be big, but we never expected to dominate the marketplace like we did,” said Dan Fellman, head of distribution for Warner Bros., which released “The Dark Knight.” The movie should shoot past the $200 million mark by the end of the week, he said.

Hollywood set an overall revenue record of $253 million for a three-day weekend, beating the $218.4 million haul over the weekend of July 7, 2006, according to box-office tracker Media By Numbers.

“This weekend is such a juggernaut,” said Nikki Rocco, head of distribution for Universal, whose musical “Mamma Mia!” debuted at No. 2 with $27.6 million.