Not meaning to sour the joyful occasion and celebration that is The Dark Knight, but it looks like Christian Bale has been causing trouble, as reported by the BBC:

Batman star Christian Bale has been bailed by police after being questioned about allegations he assaulted his mother and sister.

The 34-year-old was arrested and held for more than four hours after earlier attending a central London police station by appointment.

Mr Bale is alleged to have lashed out at his mother and sister in his suite at London’s Dorchester Hotel on Sunday.

He has been released on bail until September pending further inquiries.

Here it comes, the one we have been waiting for - The Dark Knight has set the record for best ever sales on an opening weekend, reaching $155.34m - beating Spider-man 3’s $151.1m.

We were holding a straw poll on potential weekend takings, my Friday prediction of $157m looks almost spot on :), excellent!

“The Dark Knight” took in a record $155.34 million in its first weekend, said Dan Fellman, head of distribution for Warner Bros., which released the “Batman Begins” sequel.

That topped Hollywood’s previous best of $151.1 million, set by “Spider-Man 3″ in May 2007.

Source: AP, thanks Keith!

EDIT: Looks like the final figures have been clarified - the WB had previously estimated $155.3m, it instead took in a record $158.4m, after tallying Sunday’s figures. It also set the record for an IMAX opener, earning $6.2 million from 94 IMAX theaters.

We previously reported that The Dark Knight had moved into IMDB’s top movie of all time list - entering at number 4. After another day of screening it moved up to 3, but today it hit the big one - with an average score of 9.5 from regular IMDB voters The Dark Knight took the top spot. No doubt this is temporary and after the initial flutter of activity the caped crusader shall fall and settle somewhere further down, much like Return of the King did - but this is too damn cool not to report!

After 23,000 votes, Batman still has an average score of 9.7!

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Thanks Josh!

We’d hoped this might happen - after setting the midnight sales record at $18.5m, it looked inevitable that The Dark Knight would go on to beat Spider-man 3’s record of $59.8m. Variety tells us that early reports put The Dark Knight at between $60m and $63m from a record 4366 theaters.

We’re $60m up, just $90m to go to beat that weekend record set by Spidey. Still time to make your predictions.

EDIT: Record confirmed at $66.4m, smashing Spider-man’s $59m! Source: AP

After breaking the record for opening in the most theaters nationwide (4,366 of them), Batman has now achieved the record for highest grossing midnight sales. Last night TDK took a whopping estimated $18.5 million - NOT including the 3am and 6am screenings! This breaks the previous record set by Star Wars Episode 3: Revenge of the Sith. To put this into some context, Batman Begins made $15m on its first day whilst the highest single day opening belongs to Spider-man 3 at $59.8m.

You may want to take these figures into account when predicting The Dark Knight’s weekend gross.

Source: Variety:

Warner Bros.’ “The Dark Knight” grossed the most ever for midnight shows, racking up an estimated $18.5 million.

The follow-up to 2005’s “Batman Begins” outstripped the previous midnight record set by Fox’s “Star Wars, Episode III: The Revenge of the Sith” which grossed $16.9 million from 3,663 venues. “Sith” went on to make $50 million in its first day, which was a Thursday. The highest single day opening record is currently held by Sony’s “Spider-man 3″ which made $59.8 million.

“Dark Knight” unspooled in a record number of sites - 4,366 - outstripping the wide bow of Disney’s “Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End” which touted a theater count of 4,362.

Warner Bros. reported that the $18.5 million did not include 3:00 A.M. and 6:00 A.M.

“Batman Begins” opened on June 15, 2005, a Wednesday, earning $15.1 million in its first day. Both “Batman Begins” and “The Dark Knight” are directed by Christopher Nolan.

As for the midnight shows themselves, they looked like a laugh - pictures by tech1987, Brendan Falkowskiand Clevergrrl

The Rejects Report over at Film School Rejects have put their money on a weekend gross of $136 million. This seems like a pretty good baseline to start out predictions - the record, biggest ever opening weekend was set by Spider-man 3 at $156 million, second is Dead Man’s Chest at $135m followed by Shrek The Third on $121m (Source: Box Office Mojo).

The Dark Knight has already broken one record, opening in the most theaters:

The film’s more than 4,366 domestic playdates is a record, surpassing the 4,362 theaters for May 2007’s bow of “Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End.” Double- and triple-screening at many venues means “Dark Knight” will play on 9,200 screens in the U.S. and Canada.

Its engagements include 94 Imax venues — Nolan shot long segments using Imax-format cameras — and most of those giant-screen auditoriums were sold out by midweek. A Warners exec estimated that Imax presales totaled $3.5 million, with advance ticketing for other venues adding considerably to that total.

- Hollywood Reporter

Rejects question why Mamma Mia was released the same weekend as TDK - I’d say to capture all those girlfriends and mothers that do not fancy a gritty action flick yet are being dragged to the theaters by their wide-eyed male counterparts looking to get their Joker fix. A quick dash, a fork split, you watch this and I’ll watch that sort of thing - shame they’ll be waiting a good 45 minutes after their movie has finished, with the Dark Knight clocking in at 152 mins.

I’m going to stick my neck out and go for an opening of $157m, because I am an optimist and Spider-man 3 deserves knocking off the top spot.

Place your bets now… (sorry, no prizes on this one, I haven’t got any free stuff to giveaway!)