"The Dark Knight" Box Office Hits New $199 Mil Worldwide Record

The final results exceeded earlier forecasts made by its distribution studio - a unit of Time Warner Inc.- on Sunday and confirmed "The Dark Knight" is also the largest ticket seller at theaters in all U.S. Box Office history.

In the U.S, the acclaimed Batman sequel grossed $158.355 million on its opening three-day weekend, surpassing Sunday's estimates slightly by $3 million, Reuters reported. On its debut outside the U.S., the film brought in $41.3 million in more than 20 foreign markets, surpassing Sunday's forecast of $40 million. Australia, Mexico and Brazil topped foreign box offices.

"The Dark Knight" reportedly cost over $180 million to make and is directed by Christopher Nolan, who also directed "Batman Begins" in 2005. The sequel stars Christian Bale as Batman and Heath Ledger as The Joker. Altogether, the movie was shown at 4,366 theaters in the United States.

Warner Bros. also predicted its film could gross as much as $220 million in its first entire week, according to Variety.