If you can see the cape, the bitch fell off

The Dark Knight passed the half-billion mark over the weekend.  The film took only six weeks to reach the milestone, half the time it took Titanic.

Dan Fellman, head of distribution at Warner Bros., said he expects “The Dark Knight” to finish at about $530 million, though it could reach $550 million if business persists as strongly as it has.

The Dark Knight” will climb to about $505 million by Labor Day, the conclusion of Hollywood‘s busy summer season. That amounts to nearly one-eighth of Hollywood’s overall summer revenue of $4.2 billion, which edges the previous summer record of $4.18 billion set last year, according to box-office tracker Media By Numbers.

Factoring in today’s higher admission prices, “The Dark Knight” would need to take in about $900 million to match the number of tickets sold by “Titanic.” [Yahoo]

The better Dark Knight performs, the clearer it becomes how insanely successful Titanic was. And I think the reason why is pretty obvious:  Billy Zane.