Last week’s No. 1, The Dark Knight, fell to the third spot with just under $3 million in ticket sales in its 10th week in release.

Genre films set to debut next week: Blindness, a dystopian thriller starring Mark Ruffalo, Julianne More, Gael Garcia Bernal, Danny Glover and Sandra Oh opens in limited release – with a wider release expected over the next few weeks. 

Following are the Top 10 speculative fiction movies in release in North America for the weekend of September 19-21, 2008.

RANK #. (Overall Rank) Title – Weekend Gross | Total Gross [Budget]

1. (4) Igor – $8.0 million | $8.0 million [$30 million]
2. (8) Ghost Town – $5.2 million | $5.2 million [$20 million]
3. (9) The Dark Knight – $3.0 million | $522million [$185 million]
4. (13) Death Race – $1.0 million | $35.0 million [$45 million]
5. (17) Journey to the Center of the Earth – $0.8 million | $99.1 million [$60 million]
6. (18) Babylon A.D. – $0.74 million | $21.7 million [$70 million]
7. (19) Fly Me to the Moon – $0.73 million | $11.0 million [$25 million]
8. (22) Mirrors – $0.47 million | $29.9 million [budget unreported]
9. (23) The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor – $0.40 million | $102.2 million [$145 million]
10. (24) Star Wars: The Clone Wars – $0.36 million | $34.4 million [budget unreported]

Source: Box Office Mojo – list only includes science fiction, spy fi, fantasy and dark fantasy/horror titles.

No new science fiction, fantasy, horror or spy-fi films have opened over the past two weekends as mainstream comedies dominated at North American movie theatres.

To date, Dark Knight  has brought in more than $517 million in ticket sales in in the U.S. and Canada, with a total of its second weekend – more than $966 million worldwide. According to Warner Brothers – expect the film to be pulled from theatres in the next week wees, only to be re-released in January 2009 during the Oscar season. The studio is hoping for both Academy Awards and to break the billion-dollar mark in ticket sales.

Genre films set to debut next week: Ghost Town starring Ricky Gervais, Greg Kinnear and Tea Leoni and the animated family fantasy, Igor starring the voices of John Cusack, John Cleese, Steve Buscemi, Eddie Izzard, Jennifer Coolidge, Jay Leno, Molly Shannon and Christian Slater.

Following are the Top 10 speculative fiction movies in release in North America for the weekend of September 12-14, 2008.

RANK #. (Overall Rank) Title – Weekend Gross | Total Gross [Budget]

1. (7) The Dark Knight – $4.0 million | $517.7 million [$185 million]
2. (10) Death Race – $2.0 million | $33.2 million [$45 million]
3. (11) Babylon A.D. – $1.8 million | $20.3 million [$70 million]
4. (14) Fly Me to the Moon – $1.3 million | $9.9 million [$25 million]
5. (16) Journey to the Center of the Earth – $1.1 million | $98.0 million [$60 million]
6. (18) Mirrors – $0.90 million | $29.1 million [budget unknown]
7. (19) Star Wars: The Clone Wars – $0.82 million | $33.9 million [$budget unknown]
8. (20) The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon King – $0.60 million | $101.5 million [$145 million]
9. (22) WALL-E – $0.5 million | $220.1 million [$180 million]
10. (33) Hellboy II: The Golden Army – $0.10 million | $75.8 million [$85 million]

Source: Box Office Mojo – list only includes science fiction, spy fi, fantasy and dark fantasy/horror titles.

Lat week’s No. 1 – Death Race – fell to the No. 3 spot among genre films (No. 6 overall) with about $6.3 million in ticket sales.

The No. 2 genre spot was held by Batman flick, The Dark Knight, which passed the half-billion mark in North American sales this past weekend. Racking up $8.6 million in ticket sales for a grand total of $502.3 million in domestic sales, added to the $417 million foreign takem the film reached a total gross of $921.7 million worldwide.

Needless to say, there will be more Batman films in future years.

No genre films are set to debut over the next two weeks.

Following are the Top 10 speculative fiction movies in release in North America for the 2008 Labor Day weekend.

RANK #. (Overall Rank) Title – Weekend Gross | Total Gross [Budget]

1. (2) Babylon A.D. – $9.6 million | $9.6 million [$70 million]
2. (3) The Dark Knight – $8.6 million | $502.3 million [$185 million]
3. (6) Death Race – $6.3 million | $23.1 million [$45 million]
4. (11) Mirrors – $2.74 million | $24.8 million [unreported budget]
5. (12) Star Wars: The Clone Wars – $2.70 million | $29.6 million [unreported budget]
6. (13) The Mummy: Dragon Emperor – $2.6 million | $97.9 million [$145 million]
7. (15) Journey to the Center of the Earth – $1.8 million | $94.6 million [$60 million]
8. (18) Fly Me to the Moon – $1.5 million | $6.3 million [$25 million]
9. (21) Wall-E – $1.1 million } $217.9 million [$180 million]
10. (29) Hellboy 2 – $0.2 million | $75.4 million [$85 million]

Source: Box Office Mojo – list only includes science fiction, spy fi, fantasy and dark fantasy/horror titles.

With a total take of just over $12.6 million in 2,532 theatres, the film was No. 3 overall, bested by comedies, Tropic Thunder and The House Bunny. 

Race also  knocked mega-blockbuster Dark Knight to second place among genre films.

The only other sci fi flick to debut this weekend was Cthulhu, a gay-themed independent horror film from Regent Releasing starring Tori Spelling. In limited release, the film brought in $1,438 in one theatre. (That may seem rather dismal, but compare it to the No. 5 film of the week, Star Wars: The Clone Wars, which made $1,640 per theatre.

Debuting next week in genre is the Vin Diesel science fiction thriller, Babylon A.D. which will be in wide release in 3,200 theatres in North America.

Following are the Top 10 speculative fiction movies in release in North America for the weekend of August 22-24, 2008.

RANK #. (Overall Rank) Title – Weekend Gross | Total Gross [Budget]

1. (3) Death Race – $12.6 million | $12.6 million [$45 million]
2. (4) The Dark Knight – $10.5 million | $489.4 million [$185 million]
3. (5) Star Wars: The Clone Wars – $5.7 million | $25.0 million [budget unreported]
4. (7) Mirrors – $5.0 million | $20.2 million [budget unreported]
5. (9) The Mummy: Dragon Emperor -$4.2 million | $93.9 million [$145 million]
6. (15) Journey to the Center of the Earth – $2.2 million | $91.9 million [$60 million]
7. (16) Fly Me to the Moon – $1.4 million | $4.2 million [$25 million]
8. (17) WALL-E – $0.97 million | $216.3 million [$180 million]
9. (19) Hancock – $0.64 million | $226.4 million [$150 million]
10. (20) Kung Fu Panda – $0.58 million | $212.7 million [$130 million]

Source: Box Office Mojo – list only includes science fiction, spy fi, fantasy and dark fantasy/horror titles.

1: Heath Ledger IS the Joker.
2: Aaron Eckhart IS Harvey Dent
3: Maggie Gyllenhaal IS Rachel Dawes (she should have been in the first one)
4: Gary Oldman IS Gordon
5: Christian Bale IS the Dark Knight, of course.
6: Morgan Freeman and Michael Cain were still AWESOME as Lucius Fox and Alfred.
7: The plot is not quite what you think it is.
8: The dialog was engaging.
9: The overall effects supported the themes and plot of the movie.

With all that said, this movie is NOT for kids. Seriously. Do NOT take your child to this movie. The Joker IS CREEPY and SCARY. This is no run of the mill Joker. He makes you laugh and yet you feel AWFUL for laughing. It’s full of violence (duh) but the type is not just explosions, though there are plenty of those, but it’s psychological as well. There are also some disturbing scenes. There’s very little sexual innuendo and not much profanity though.

<strong>*SPOILER ALERT!* If you do not want spoilers then do not read this section! Skip to the end. You have been WARNED.</strong>

My favorite scenes are following:

The Joker’s pencil trick. That was horrifyingly awesome.

The Joker sitting down next to Harvey Dent dressed up as a nurse.

The Joker attempting to blow up the hospital but his remote didn’t work immediately. He smacks it a few times and then jumps when it finally works.

Bruce Wayne absconding with the entire ballet cast as a cover for a mission.

The black inmate tossing the trigger to the bomb out the window.

Gordon faking his own death to protect his family from the Joker.

Harvey Dent’s change from the White Knight of Gotham to the Two Face. It was utterly believable and well done, and unexpected. I figured they were setting us up for the next movie, but nope.

Batman’s personal sacrifice to save the face of Gotham’s hope. He was the one who murdered the cops, and Harvey Dent was simply murdered by the Joker after the hospital incident. Dent was the hero Gotham needed while Batman is the hero Gotham deserved.

Other awesome things, the Joker’s broken speech and his lip licking tick. His motivation is to have fun. He’s intelligent, and plays mind games. He tells Batman that they need each other. . .

I love how you never find out how the Joker got his scars. It’s a different story each time he explains them.

<strong>*END* of spoilers. You may now read without concern!</strong>

Seriously, if you love Batman, see this movie. If you only moderately like Batman see this movie. If you want to see why this movie has been in the number one slot all month, see this movie. I want to see it again, in theatres, because it deserves that kind of love and attention. This movie will become a part of our DVD collection, which is saying something since we are rather picky about what movies we choose to pay up money for.