The Dark Knight Batman movie broke a new box office record making $155.34 million in its first weekend. The previous record was set by Spider-Man 3 in May of 2007 when it made $151.1 million.

Factoring in higher admission prices, however, "Spider-Man 3" may have sold slightly more tickets than "The Dark Knight."

At 2007’s average price of $6.88, "Spider-Man 3" sold 21.96 million tickets over opening weekend. Box office tracker Media By Numbers estimates today’s average movie prices at $7.08, which means "The Dark Knight" would have sold 21.94 million tickets.

"The Dark Knight," which cost $185 million to make, also broke the "Spider-Man 3" record for best debut in IMAX large-screen theaters with $6.2 million. "Spider-Man 3" opened with $4.7 million in IMAX cinemas.

Did you see The Dark Knight?

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As I mentioned yesterday, I went to see The Dark Knight Batman movie last evening, and I also saw Hellboy 2.

The critics said, "Don’t see Batman once, see it twice." They were right. This was a really different, much more gritty, and realistic superhero movie. Batman’s weaknesses were exposed, making him appear more like a real man trying to do the right thing, but also fighting the temptation to do the wrong thing.

The story was well written, and focused mostly on character development. A lot of action was thrown in, along with such a compelling story line that there were no dull moments. In fact, it was impossible to take my eyes off the screen the entire time. No one even got up to use the bathroom.

Heath Ledger is said to be up for an award for his work in this movie. After seeing his performance, I was blown away. Heath totally became The Joker, and literally made the role his own. Heath was the most real character in the whole movie. It was as if he really became The Joker, which makes it even more heart breaking that an actor with his gift died so young.

Everyone’s acting in this movie was superb. Although I thought Maggie Gyllenhaal was a terrible choice as Batman’s love interest, there is a reason she was chosen for the role.

I’m not going to give you any spoilers, except to say, "SEE THIS MOVIE." If you don’t see it at the theater, then see it later, but see it. This is superhero history. Superhero movies are getting better, and taking themselves much more serious, and making some serious money. The movie cost over $180 million to make, but it’s sure to break many movie profit records.

Tickets to The Dark Knight this weekend were selling for up to $1,500 on Craigslist. One ticket seller asked, “What are tickets worth to you?” Don’t get ripped off. Buy the tickets at their regular cost. Use the money you save for other things that are more important, like eating.

I saw Hellboy a few years ago out of interest, and it was pretty good. Last night I watched Hellboy 2 – The Golden Army after Batman, and it was really good as well. Hellboy 2 included a market scene that reminded me a lot of Harry Potter. There was a mix of action, love story, martial art style fighting, science fiction, magic, and a really tight story, plus some comedy thrown in. Hellboy 2 was entertaining from beginning to end.

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Here’s the official The Dark Knight video trailer for Batman.

This is a rip off however. Click here to see the full six minute and 24 second trailer that is so hard to get.

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It won’t be official until the weekend is over, but Will Smith stars in I Am Legend which is currently set to break the record for biggest December movie opening ever. One reason might be The Dark Knight Batman movie trailer which appears at the start of I Am Legend. I may go see Will’s movie tomorrow, but you can watch The Dark Knight trailer right now. Click here to see it because HG has the last copy left on the Internet, as far as we know.

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One of the movie trailers for Will Smith’s new movie I Am Legend just happened to be The Dark Knight, which stars Heath Ledger as The Joker, and Christian Bale as Batman. The studio is getting the video removed from everywhere, and this may be the last copy, so you’d better watch it right now, unless you plan to see I Am Legend.

This first video is the full six minute trailer that is so hard to get.

If the video below doesn’t work, then use the one below that one which will absolutely work.

[See post to watch Flash video]

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Click the link below for The Dark Knight spoilers for the new Batman movie.

If the opening frames of “The Dark Knight” are any indication, Batman will have his hands full come June. The Joker is on the loose, and MTV News has seen just how devilishly maniacal and dangerous he can be.

On Sunday night, a small crowd in New York gathered to watch the first six minutes of director Christopher Nolan’s eagerly awaited sequel to “Batman Begins” and, holy extended trailer, the footage did not disappoint. Introduced by the beaming director and displayed on an 80-foot-tall IMAX screen, the opening of the film welcomed Heath Ledger’s Joker to the Nolan/Batman universe.

And it was clear from the start, much as you might have loved Jack Nicholson’s villain, the purple-clad bad man won’t have the time or inclination to dance to Prince this time around. Nolan spoke at length with MTV News immediately prior to and following the special event, clearly proud of his new villain. “I think what Heath is doing is very adventurous,” he said. “What he’s doing is very radical. It’s very much what I wanted. I knew I needed someone really fearless.”

The opening sequence — specially filmed in the IMAX format, and set to debut December 14 with prints of “I Am Legend” in theaters — fulfilled a dream for Nolan, who said he had been wanting to shoot in the format for 15 years. “In the finished film, there will be four or five IMAX sequences,” Nolan explained. He continued excitedly before the screening: “Everything about doing this in the IMAX format is trying to get that feeling back when I was a little kid when I’d sit in a movie theater and see images that were larger than life. That’s what I’m trying to get back to with this material. I felt like introducing the Joker in this way because he’s such a huge character [and it] would be a very fun thing to do.”

But Nolan also revealed that not all the IMAX scenes will be action-filled. “Some of them are actually quiet scenes which pictorially we thought would be interesting. It’s not all the slam-bam scenes,” he said.

As the lights dimmed, the first images were revealed, of a gleaming and bright Gotham City. The camera moves in close on a building when suddenly the calm is shattered, quite literally, by a broken window. A group of clown-mask-clad robbers are about to seize a bank. They bicker about the mysterious man who has employed them. “Why do they call him the Joker?” one asks another. It’s a refrain almost identical to those rooftop thugs who wonder about the mysterious “bat” in the opening frames of Tim Burton’s “Batman.”

Soon we are inside the bank as a tense standoff is under way. None of the employees resist, save one played by character-actor extraordinaire William Fichtner. This is a mob bank, we learn, and the wrong place to mess with, even for a group of seasoned criminals.

The controlled heist degenerates into a mess quickly enough, with each of the robbers mysteriously getting taken out. But it’s not Batman knocking them off — rather, it’s one of the robbers themselves. Just as the final two robbers are set to leave, one pulls a gun on the other. “I bet the Joker told you to kill me as soon as we loaded the cash,” he says, clearly with the upper hand.

The eerily calm but playful response comes. “No, no, no. He killed the bus driver.”

Before the gun-toting clown can finish asking, “What bus driver?,” he is taken out by a school bus crashing into the bank. “School’s out. Time to go!” screams the sole survivor of the gang.

All that remains for him is the bank employee (Fichtner) lying at his feet. By now we’re pretty sure these are going to be his last words: “The criminals in this town used to believe in things. Honor. Respect. What do you believe in?” He screams it again, louder, “What do you believe in?”

And the mask comes off. The grinning, scarred face of the Joker is revealed at last. His face filled the 8-story-high screen as the clip played. “I believe whatever doesn’t kill you simply makes you …,” he said. He pauses on the last word: ” … stranger.”

As the Joker made his getaway, the sequence ended, but before the lights returned, the audience was treated to quick tantalizing flashes of the rest of the film. The Joker firing what looks to be an automatic weapon in a city street. Police Commissioner Gordon raising an ax dramatically. Batman whizzing by in his batpod. And finally, Gordon lowering the ax, destroying what we see now was the bat signal. Troubled times clearly await in Gotham. And it’s clear who’s to blame.

Nolan explained to MTV News that the Joker we meet in “The Dark Knight” is fully formed. Don’t look for an origin story here. “To me, the Joker is an absolute,” he said. “There are no shades of gray to him — maybe shades of purple. He’s unbelievably dark. He bursts in just as he did in the comics.”

Though there was no sign of much of the supporting cast in this extended preview, Nolan stressed there’s much more to the story. Asked about Aaron Eckhart’s Harvey “Two-Face” Dent, the director said “his story is in some ways the backbone of the film. [Bruce Wayne and Harvey] have an interesting relationship. They’re friends and rivals.”

And what about the caped crusader we left at the end of “Batman Begins”? Nolan explained that “he’s a little more sure of himself” in the new film. “We didn’t want him sitting around wrestling with the same angst. It’s all-new angst,” he laughed.

Nolan, who wrapped filming just two weeks ago, said he’s shooting for a running time comparable to the first film’s 140 minutes. Congratulated on the ambitious slam-bang start to his sequel, MTV News asked if the next six minutes could help but live up to the first. The director smiled and sighed nearly in unison. “That’s what I’m working on now.”

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Plans to have Christian Bale, who plays Batman in The Dark Knight, was scheduled to perform a stunt where he jumps from the back of a Hercules C130 [a four-engine turboprop aircraft] into Victoria Harbor in Hong Kong. However an unnamed official with the production house said:

"When they checked a water sample, they found all sorts of things, salmonella, and tuberculosis, so it was canceled. Now the action will cut to inside a building."

Swimming in Victoria Harbor is not recommended to any one, not even Batman, as it has long been polluted by horrendous amounts of industrial runoff and residential sewage, WWF’s conservation director Andy Cornish said. I thought Batman had some sort of crap repellant that could keep him safe, but it looks like he wouldn’t be safe even with his rubber bat suit. It would suck to see Batman get killed off by water, rather than a legitimate villain like the joker, or the penguin.

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Over the weekend Heath Ledger (the new joker in Batman) and Michelle Williams (long forgotten Dawson Creek star) ended their three-year relationship. The couple have a daughter, Mathilda. A source close to the couple says:

“It was rocky for awhile. They did what they could to make it work.”

Michelle did everything she could, she dyed her hair brown, cut it short, and dressed like a boy, but her gay cowboy still wasn’t satisfied.

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Indie darling Maggie Gyllenhaal has made some comments that sound suspiciously like a Katie Holmes slam.

The two actresses bear a striking physical resemblance, which we’d never noticed before. And, though Gyllenhaal will be playing Rachel Dawes in "The Dark Knight," according to MSNBC, she says that marks the end of any similarities between her performance and the one phoned in by Holmes for the last Batman installment.

“I’m not walking into Katie Holmes’ performance,” Gyllenhaal said, reports WENN. “I’m thinking of it as an opportunity to play somebody who’s alive and smart. Chris (Nolan the director) asked me to do this because he wanted me, not because he wants some generic lady in a dress.”

Alive and smart. You couldn’t come up with a pithier, more accurate way to describe "the opposite of Katie Holmes since she married Tom Cruise."

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Warner Brothers Pictures has released a hi-res version of the new Batman suit from The Dark Knight, opening in theaters on July 18, 2008. Directed by Christopher Nolan, the anticipated sequel stars Christian Bale, Heath Ledger, Morgan Freeman, Michael Caine, Gary Oldman, Aaron Eckhart, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Eric Roberts, Anthony Michael Hall, and Nestor Carbonell.

Which you rather see: Christian Bale wearing the new Batman suit, or Christian Bale naked?

Click below to see the new Batman suit…

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