'Dark Knight' soars at the box office

Twelve people were killed and 58 wounded when a gunman sprayed bullets into a midnight premiere of the final instalment of the Batman trilogy in Aurora, Colorado on July 20.

Still the film finished its debut weekend with the third-largest earnings ever, and this weekend raked in earnings well above its competitors, bringing in $62.1-million, according to Exhibitor Relations, which tracks ticket sales.

Second place, with $13.4-million, went to 3D computer-animated adventure comedy Ice Age 4: Continental Drift.

Coming in just behind was science-fiction comedy The Watch, which opened with $12.75-million in box office receipts.

The film stars Ben Stiller, Vince Vaughn, Jonah Hill and Richard Ayoade as four suburban dads who form a neighbourhood watch only to end up battling an alien invasion.

Step Up: Revolution, about a crew of street dancers protesting urban development plans in Miami, opened in fourth ($11.7-million), followed by cheeky teddy bear comedy Ted, ($7.4-million) and The Amazing Spider-Man ($6.7-million).

Pixar studio's 3D animated fairy-tale Brave dropped to 7th place ($4.3-million), ahead of Steven Soderbergh's comedy about male strippers, Magic Mike, ($2.6 million) and Oliver Stone's thriller Savages, ($1.8-million), about California drug traffickers facing off against a Mexican cartel.

Rounding out the top 10 was Wes Anderson's dream-like narrative Moonrise Kingdom, with $1.4-million. – Sapa-AFP

.