'Dark Knight' Rescues Summer Box Office

Thanks to the soaring performance of "The Dark Knight," the 2008 summer box office finished a fraction ahead of last year's record-setting take.

Box office tracker Media By Numbers said Monday that movie ticket sales between the first weekend in May through Labor Day totaled about $4.2 billion, up from $4.18 billion during summer 2007.

"The Dark Knight," Warner Bros. "Batman Begins" sequel crossed over the $500 million mark Labor Day weekend. The studio expects the movie to top out at about a $530 million gross, leaving "Titanic" as the all-time box office champ at $600.8 million.

Coming in behind "The Dark Knight" at the box office were "Iron Man" and "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull," which each earned more than $300 million domestically.

Other films that earned big office returns include "Hancock," "Kung-Fu Panda," "Sex and the City," "The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian" and "The Incredible Hulk."