Aug. 17 (Bloomberg) -- Time Warner Inc.'s Batman saga ``The Dark Knight'' surpassed the original ``Star Wars'' to become the second highest-grossing domestic film of all time with $471.5 million, a month after its release.

``Star Wars'' earned $461 million for News Corp.'s 20th Century Fox studio in the domestic -- U.S. and Canadian -- market after its May 1977 release, box-office tracker Media By Numbers LLC said today in an e-mailed statement. ``Dark Knight'' achieved the milestone yesterday after 30 days, Media By Numbers said.

The numbers have lifted Time Warner to first place in 2008 ticket sales among studios with $1.31 billion, and may help the film industry break last year's record of $9.68 billion. ``Dark Knight'' failed to top the box-office chart this weekend after four consecutive weeks in first place, falling to the comedy ``Tropic Thunder.''

``Dark Knight'' earned $16.8 million this week, second to ``Tropic Thunder'' with $26 million, Media By Numbers said. ``Dark Knight'' was the fastest film to earn $400 million in sales in 18 days on Aug. 5, cementing its place as Hollywood's quickest moneymaker.

Viacom Inc.'s ``Titanic'' is the No. 1 all-time domestic film, with sales of $601 million.

To contact the reporter on this story: Dan Hart in Washington at dahart@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: August 17, 2008 12:49 EDT