DARK KNIGHT RISES: HOW MANY STAYED AWAY?

Warner Bros.’ The Dark Knight Rises did indeed set a record over the weekend. It’s $160.9-billion gross represented the biggest take ever for a 2D movie. It’s also the third best opening among all films after The Avengers with $207,438,708 and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2 with $169,189,427. Before Friday’s shootings in Colorado,it had been expected to have a fighting chance of exceeding those two films — even without having the 3D surcharge going for it. It was clear that the successful finale of the Batman trilogy came at the expense of virtually everything else at the box office — in particular The Amazing Spider-Man, which dropped a whopping 69 percent from last week to $10.9 million to place third. Nevertheless, thanks to the huge haul of Dark Knight Rises, the overall box office was up 23.5 percent over the same weekend a year ago when Captain America: The First Avenger opened with $65.1 million.

The top ten films over the weekend, according to final figures compiled by Box Office Mojo (figures in parentheses represent total gross to date):
1. The Dark Knight Rises, Warner Bros., $160,887,295, (New); 2. Ice Age: Continental Drift, 20th Century Fox, $20,416,978, 2 Wks. ($88,840,284); 3. The Amazing Spider Man, Sony, $10,887,111, 3 Wks. ($228,611,425); 4. Ted, Universal, $10,011,310, 4 Wks. ($180,431,425); 5. Brave, Disney, $6,024,987, 5 Wks. ($208,774,173); 6. Magic Mike, Warner Bros., $4,291,432, 4 Wks. ($101,966,459); 7. Savages, Universal, $3,398,880, 3 Wks. ($40,055,075); 8. Tyler Perry’s Madea’s Witness Protection, Lionsgate, $2,253,074, 4 Wks. ($60,289,622); 9. Moonrise Kingdom, Focus Features, $1,831,471, 9 Wks. ($36,087,959); 10. To Rome with Love, SPC, $1,420,891, 5 Wks. ($11,107,993).