The Dark Knight takes $66m in America - in one day

Warner Bros, to be fair, knew that The Dark Knight was going to be big. A brilliant marketing campaign, staggering word of mouth, inevitably some effect caused by the tragic death of Heath Ledger and the wonderful Batman Begins all added up to what looked like the biggest opening weekend of the summer.

And while the final US weekend takings aren't in, the opening day estimates are, and the news is that The Dark Knight is reported to have taken $66.4m in one single day. That's the biggest daily haul ever, beating previous-record holder Spider-man 3's $59.8m, and soundly ahead of this year's nearest contender, Iron Man, which raked in $37.3m.

The final weekend take is expected to break further records, and then we'll see if the tremendous response the film has been receiving will take it above Indiana Jones to become the biggest hit of the summer...

Our review is here.