The Dark Knight the latest sequel in the Batman series made history of sorts raking in the best opening weekend collections ever for a movie in the North American release.

The sequel took $155.3 m surpassing the previous opening weekend record set by Spider-Man 3 last year, which took $151.1 m. Batman, which opened on Friday, took $66.4m, which was also a single-day box office record. The movie has already broken the record for the biggest midnight showing by earning $18.4 million going past Star Wars: Episode III.

The 2 -hour flick stars Christian Bale as the Gotham’s perpetual savior. Aaron Eckhart portrays district attorney Harvey Dent, and Maggie Gyllenhaal plays love interest Rachel Dawes. But the main attraction is the Joker played by the late Heath Ledger who died last January of a drug overdose.

It’s been nearly three years since the iconic hero last swooped onto screens in “Batman Begins.” We knew it would be big, but we never expected to dominate the marketplace like we did,” said Dan Fellman, head of distribution for Warner Bros., which released “The Dark Knight.” The movie should surpass $200 million by the end of the week, he said.

Directed by Christopher Nolan, The Dark Knight cost $185m to make. The last Batman movie, Batman Begins, in 2005, grossed nearly $49 million in its first weekend in North America. It went on to collect about $372 million worldwide.