OK, so, as a huge fanboy of Nolan and his take on the Batman series, I was uber-excited to hear that The Dark Knight stomped the extremely under-whelming Star Wars III Friday night opening numbers.  But, the news today has made my heart sing.  A well made, nearly perfect film, beat out, what I consider one of the worst films ever, Spiderman 3, and took in almost $159 million at the box-office for an opening weekend record.  Take that Tobie!

Warner Bros. and Legendary Pictures’ “The Dark Knight” rocketed the Batman film franchise into the superhero stratosphere as it nabbed the highest weekend opening ever in grossing an official $158.3 million — even more than Sunday’s estimate of $155.3 million.

Tally easily beats the $151.1 million opening of “Spider-Man 3” in May 2007. “Dark Knight” enjoyed a better-than-expected Sunday. Final figure of $158.3 million was released Monday morning.

My super short review here, is that, upon leaving the theater, it had no just been a movie, but it had been an experience.  What a great film, and deservedly so.  Batman helped the overall box-office as well.  I’m so happy for Nolan, and everyone involved with the movie.  One of the coolest parts, for me at least, was when they had the “Dedicated To” in the end sequence, they remembered the stuntman that gave his life to get one of the shots done.  I was so worried that they’d forget all about him.  

For the full, ‘awesome way to start your Monday’ article, head over to Variety.