Batman is king of Hollywood heroes

Batman has topped Spiderman as the king of Hollywood superheroes, studio estimates showed.

The Dark Knight took a US box office record of 155.34 million dollars (£77.7m) in its opening weekend, beating the previous best of 151.1 million (£75.6m) set by Spider-Man 3 in May last year.

Studio estimates showed it was the biggest Hollywood weekend opening ever.

Dan Fellman, head of distribution for Warner Bros, which released the latest instalment of the caped crusader, predicted the Batman film would shoot past the 200 million dollar (£100.1m) mark by the end of the week.

"We knew it would be big, but we never expected to dominate the marketplace like we did," he said.

Paul Dergarabedian, president of box office tracker Media By Numbers, said: "The average opening gross of the last five Batman movies is 47 million dollars (£23.5m). This tripled that, and for a reason. A big part of that was the Heath Ledger mystique and a phenomenal performance that absolutely deserves the excitement surrounding it."

Ledger, who plays the Joker, died in January from an accidental prescription-drug overdose. But his performance has prompted speculation that his role might earn him a posthumous Oscar nomination.

The Dark Knight also took Spider-Man 3's records for best debut in IMAX large-screen cinemas and highest opening day takings.

The Dark Knight, which cost 185 million dollars (£92.6m) to make, took 6.2 million dollars (£3.1m) in its IMAX debut, compared with 4.7 million dollars (£2.4m) for Spider-Man 3.

And Batman pulled in a record 67.85 million dollars (£34m) on its opening day, again beating Spider-Man 3's 59.8 million dollars (£30m).