The Dark Knight, director Christopher Nolan's Batman film staring Heath Ledger as Joker, topped out Bulgarian box office sales its first week in theatres. Released in Bulgaria on July 25 2008 through distribution company Alexandra Films, the Warner Bros comic book thriller grossed 157 249 in its first weekend, with 17 979 tickets sold in 17 cinema halls around the country.

This is more than six times the revenue from Hancock, the second-most viewed film in Bulgaria for the weekend of July 25 to 27. Its 3485 tickets sold grossed 25 185 leva, for a total ticket sales of 55 395 and 391 241 leva in the four weeks since its release.

Alexandra Films provided The Sofia Echo with this data in its National Theatrical Box Office Report, prepared on July 29.

Since it was released eight weeks ago, on June 6, the cosmopolitan romantic comedy Sex and the City has levelled out in 10th place, down from seventh place a week before. It has sold 78 768 tickets to date, for a revenue of 599 199 leva.

The movie is second in total revenue of films still in Bulgarian cinemas only to Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, which, since its release on May 23, has netted 907 994 leva through the sales of 129 715 tickets.

The Dark Knight, the last film in which Ledger acted before dying from a prescription medicine overdose on January 22 2008, is speculated to surpass director James Cameron's Titanic in box office sales. The 1998 romantic seat-filler with Leonardo diCaprio and Kate Winslet grossed US$600.8 million with its weeks and weeks and weeks – 15, to be exact – in the number one spot in theatres.

According to a July 28 2008 article in The New York Times, The Dark Knight, with Christian Bale as Batman himself, brought in $314.2 million in United States ticket sales its first 10 days in theatres. It was released on July 18.

The weekend after its July 24 release in the United Kingdom saw the film bring in 8.6 million pounds sterling (US$17.2 million).