Warner Bros’ latest Batman movie is expected to become the second-highest grossing movie of all time in North America Saturday, a box office tracking firm predicts.

“The Dark Knight,” the sixth installment of the comic book adaptation franchise released one month ago in U.S. and Canadian theaters, will zip past “Star Wars” at some point in the day, according to the Los Angeles-based firm Media By Number.

The film will eclipse the 461 million U.S. dollars earned by the George Lucas film at box offices since it was released in 1977, and re-released several times since then.

“The Dark Knight” moved into third place when it overtook ” Shrek” and its 436.5 million dollars in receipts, and “E.T. The Extra Terrestrial” with its 434.9 million dollars, earlier this month.

The highest-grossing movie of all time in North America, ” Titanic,” had a take of nearly 601 million dollars in the years after its release in 1997. It is also No.1 globally with a worldwide gross of 1.84 billion dollars.

The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor

Well, it appears to be a sequel that nobody really wanted, but the third Mummy film does take the throne away from The Dark Knight after two weekends, with a Friday take of $15.5 million. Of course, this does not even come close to the $24.1 million The Mummy Returns took in on its opening day back in 2001. It does beat The Mummy’s $14.9 million from nine years ago, but that movie, not being a sequel (and actually being, you know, kinda fun and good) managed a 2.9 multiplier, something I don’t expect Tomb of the Dragon Emperor to duplicate. Even The Mummy Returns’ weekend multiplier was 2.82, and I just don’t see that happening here, either, since the box office has changed so much since then.

I’m going with a multiplier of 2.6, which is just enough to push Tomb of the Dragon Emperor over the $40 million mark for the weekend. It might not be the top film of the weekend, though…

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There’s technically still a lot of summer left to go, but you could forgiven for thinking that for most purposes, the summer movie season ends this weekend. It’s got the final bona fide tentpole of the season, and the last chance at records, and one of the last chances for fanboys to experience that opening weekend rush feeling.The Dark Knight is the second film in the reboot of the Batman franchise, following 2005’s Batman Begins. In this outing, Batman faces his most notorious and dangerous villain, The Joker, played here as a psychotic anarchist hell-bent not on so much on killing the Batman as destroying him, turning him to his side. As realistic a movie can be about a billionaire crime fighting vigilante, it’s the most realistic take on The Joker yet.

Almost all the principals return for this film, including Christian Bale as Bruce Wayne/Batman, Gary Oldman as James Gordon, Michael Caine as Alfred and Morgan Freeman as Lucius Fox, with Maggie Gyllenhall swapping in for Katie Holmes. Additions this time around include Aaron Eckhart as Harvey Dent and of course, Heath Ledger as The Joker.

As we’re probably all aware, Ledger tragically died from a prescription medication overdose this winter, which some blamed on the intensity of his performance and the demands of the role. It’s always seemed a bit fatuous as an explanation to me, but it does add some poignancy to the film, and has jump-started Oscar talk for his performance. As unusual as it would be for a comic book film to garner this kind of talk, it doesn’t seem impossible. Even the makeup seems more appropriate, with the messy, unhinged look being perfect for the role..

As a continuation of Christopher Nolan’s gritty take on the comic, The Dark Knight looks like it not only makes it to the fireworks factory, it takes place in it. Saving The Joker for the second film now takes on the appearance of a masterstroke, as after the debacle of the Schumacher movies, audiences needed at least one great film in the series to warm back up to it. Blowing the series’ best villain on that film would have been a mistake. In another bit of gimmick, parts of the movie were filmed for IMAX theaters, 96 of which will host a special enhanced version of the film. The $48 million opening weekend of Begins looks to be obliterated, with the only real question being how high it can go.

In the lead up to the film’s release, it’s been assumed that younger demographics would be left in the cold by the intensity of the film. This is undoubtedly still true, but hype has gone to such ludicrous levels that almost any number is plausible. Midnight screenings are sold out, by and large, and the 4,366 venues it starts in is an all time record, besting the third Pirates of the Caribbean movie. For this release, I think we’re looking at a monumental $122 million opening weekend.

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We live in a culture of instant gratification: instant-on appliances, fast food and, in some states, even day-of-registration voting.

Hollywood is not immune, especially during the summer months, when moviegoers descend each weekend on the newest movie at the multiplex like a swarm of hungry locusts.

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We step back from the “one blockbuster per week” release strategy for a brief period as three middle tier summer films make their way to theaters. It’s one of the few weekends of summer without a true “must-see” film, but one of the few with choices.Guillermo del Toro is back with his twisted visual sensibility for Hellboy II: The Golden Army, the sequel to the 2004 Hellboy film. Picking up where he left off with the captured and reformed demon that fights otherworldly bad guys for a secret American government agency, he pits Hellboy against the mythical world, which is aiming for a take-over of this one.A huge part of the appeal of Hellboy is the lovable-ness of the character, a gruff, blue-collar super-hero who just happens to be giant and red. As played by Ron Perlman, he’s one of the more lighthearted and enjoyable comic characters to watch on screen, in contrast to the enemies he fights, which tend towards the “unspeakable horror” type.

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It’s a tale of two movies, with an oddly similar ending.

Five years ago, “Hulk,” the first movie based on Marvel’s hulking green comic book character, rang up $245 million in worldwide box office but was widely dismissed as a commercial failure.

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Will Smith, the King of July, has gone to the Independence Day well with success again, despite some serious challenges with Hancock, his latest summer spectacle. The $150 million Sony production opened on Tuesday night, and showed Smith’s usual earning power over the first five days of Hancock’s release. Bigger news came this weekend from the holdovers, as WALL-E and Wanted both struggled due to Independence Day landing on Friday, forcing them to compete with fireworks and barbecues on America’s birthday.Will Smith really is the King of Independence Day. The Fresh Prince has had five July 4th openers, and all except one (Wild Wild West) were mega earners (the others are Men in Black, Independence Day and Men in Black II). Those four films earned a combined $181 million over the three-day portions of their Independence Day weekends, and amassed $861 million in domestic grosses over their runs. Don’t forget that all of those films were released prior to the end of 2002, so inflation would catapult those totals toward the $1 billion mark. Smith has shied away from movies released on Independence Day as of late, maybe due to the so-so success of Men in Black II. That movie failed to reach $200 million domestic, despite being highly anticipated. Suffice it to say that expectations were high for Hancock heading into the weekend.

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It’s comedy weekend at the movies, with two heavy hitters attempting to rule the top of the charts. The odds are good, though, that we’ll see one of them dominate, with the other more likely to be June’s first bomb.It’s hard to imagine a current actor more suited than Steve Carell to step into the role of Maxwell Smart, the bumbling secret agent in this week’s Get Smart, based on the 1960s TV series. Smart, an agent for the spy agency CONTROL who succeeds in spite of himself, was played by Don Adams in the original series with a cocksure cluelessness, something that fits Carell to a T. Think “Michael Scott, international spy” and you’re halfway there.

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The Summer 2008 hot streak continued this weekend as two new titles were released into theaters. Each found a significant amount of success relative to expectations. The Incredible Hulk had a Marvelous opening while M. Night Shyamalan’s latest folly, The Happening, overcame tremendous critical scorn to open well beyond projections. There could be only one winner, of course, and it proved to be the not-so-jolly green giant.

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