July 20 (Bloomberg) -- Time Warner Inc.'s ``The Dark Knight,'' the sequel to 2005's ``Batman Begins,'' made a record $155.3 million in its opening weekend for Warner Bros., while setting at least five other box-office records.

They include the biggest single-day gross for a movie ($67.9 million), the largest midnight preview ($18.5 million) and the most opening theaters (4,366), box-office tracker Media By Numbers LLC said today in a statement. The top 12 films made $249.6 million total, also a first.

In some U.S. cities, theaters sold out of ``Dark Knight'' tickets days in advance of show times. Warner Bros., last among the six biggest Hollywood studios this year by U.S. ticket sales, may rise to third place behind Viacom Inc.'s Paramount and News Corp.'s Twentieth Century Fox when final results are released tomorrow.

``It's a watershed moment in box-office history,'' said Paul Dergarabedian, president of Media By Numbers, in an interview. ``These are numbers that are extremely rare.''

Sony Corp.'s ``Spider-Man 3'' held the previous record for the largest three-day opening, making $151.1 million last year.

`Mamma Mia!'

``The Dark Knight'' stars Christian Bale as Bruce Wayne, who fights crime disguised as Batman, and Heath Ledger, who died in January from an accidental prescription-drug overdose, as the Joker. Maggie Gyllenhaal plays Rachel Dawes, Wayne's love interest, while Morgan Freeman returns as Lucius Fox and Michael Caine reprises the role of Alfred, the butler.

Critics praised ``The Dark Knight,'' with 175 positive write-ups out of the 186 reviews tracked on RottenTomatoes.com as of July 18.

The film also set records for the biggest Imax midnight preview ($640,000) and biggest opening weekend gross for an Imax release ($6.21 million in 94 theaters), Media by Numbers said.

``Mamma Mia!,'' based on the Broadway musical, brought in $27.6 million for General Electric Co.'s Universal Pictures for a second-place finish, Media By Numbers said. That was the biggest opening for a movie-musical.

`Hancock'

Set to the music of Abba, the film follows the musical story of a daughter who invites to her wedding three men from her mother's past, one of whom who may be her father. The movie stars Meryl Streep, Pierce Brosnan and Colin Firth.

The film was projected by Box Office Mojo LLC to have ticket sales of $24.2 million. It edged out ``Hairspray,'' which made $27.5 million for Time Warner's New Line Cinema when it debuted, for the best movie-musical opener.

Finishing in third place was Sony Corp.'s ``Hancock,'' starring Will Smith as a hard-living superhero, with $14 million. The film has taken in $191.5 million since its July 2 release. Jason Bateman and Charlize Theron co-star.

``Journey to the Center of the Earth,'' from Warner Bros., dropped to fourth place from third, with $11.9 million in receipts. Brendan Fraser stars in a 3-D interpretation of the Jules Verne novel. He plays a scientist who makes a discovery that leads to underground adventures.

`Wall-E'

Universal's ``Hellboy II: The Golden Army,'' directed by Guillermo del Toro, fell to fifth place from first last weekend, with $10 million. The film stars Ron Perlman as a demon trained to protect humanity from supernatural villains. The first film, released in 2004, took in $23.2 million in its opening weekend and went on to collect a worldwide total of $99.3 million, according to Box Office Mojo. ``Hellboy II'' co-stars Selma Blair and Jeffrey Tambor.

Rounding out sixth through 10th place, respectively, were: ``Wall-E,'' from Walt Disney Co.'s Pixar studio, with $9.81 million; ``Space Chimps,'' from News Corp.'s Twentieth Century Fox, with $7.35 million; Universal's ``Wanted,'' with $5.1 million; Warner Bros.' ``Get Smart,'' with $4.09 million; and Paramount's ``Kung Fu Panda,'' with $1.75 million.

Receipts for the top 12 movies rose 70 percent to a record $249.6 million from the year-earlier period, Encino, California- based Media By Numbers said. The previous record was $218.4 million, set on the weekend of July 7, 2006.

For the year, box-office sales are down 0.89 percent to $5.36 billion. Attendance has dropped 3.7 percent from a year earlier.

The following table has figures provided by studios to Media By Numbers. The amounts are based on gross ticket sales from July 18, yesterday and estimates for today.

Movie                Rev.  Theaters  Wks   Avg./    Pct.  Total
                    (mln)                 Theater   Chg.  (mln)

1.  The Dark Knight $155.3   4,366    1   $35,579    --   155.3
2.  Mamma Mia!        27.6   2,976    1     9,276    --    27.6
3.  Hancock           14.0   3,776    3     3,708   -56   191.5
4.  Journey           11.9   2,830    2     4,208   -43    43.1
5.  Hellboy II        10.0   3,212    2     3,125   -71    56.4
6.  Wall-E             9.1   3,310    4     2,965   -48   182.5
7.  Space Chimps       7.4   2,511    1     2,927    --     7.4
8.  Wanted             5.1   2,433    4     2,095   -58   123.3
9.  Get Smart          4.1   2,135    5     1,913   -43   119.6
10. Kung Fu Panda      1.8   1,505    7     1,163   -60   206.5

To contact the reporter on this story: Andy Fixmer in Los Angeles at afixmer@bloomberg.netMeg Tirrell in New York at mtirrell@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: July 20, 2008 14:57 EDT