The question was never whether or not The Dark Knight would break any records, but rather how many would it break? Warner Bros. and Legendary Pictures were elated when the dust settled and they found out they had the biggest weekend opener of all time, with a film that grossed an estimated $155.4 million, beating the former record holder, Spider-Man 3, which made $151.1 million on its first weekend in May 2007.

The Dark Knight also set a single day record on of $67.9 million on Friday, bolstered by sold-out midnight screenings which necessitated additional showings at 3:00 and 6:00 am. Saturday, the film earned another $48.1 million, and an additional $39 million on Sunday. Playing in a record 4,366 theaters, this Batman installment could well gross as much as $220 million in its first week, which tops the $205 million total the last film in the franchise, Batman Begins, made in its entire domestic run.

But the records don’t stop there, Batman’s totals, plus unexpectedly high profits from second place finisher Mamma Mia!, broke the alltime weekend box office record: Hollywood combined made $250 million, topping the previous record of $218.4 million in early July 2007 when Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest was released.

Mamma Mia! brought in $27.6 million of its own and broke a few records as well. It narrowly beat Hairspray as the best opening musical ever. That film, a slick remake of the 1988 John Waters cult classic, opened over this weekend last year, and grossed $27.5 million. Mamma Mia! was already a success overseas, as it opened a week ago and has so far made $72.6 million on foreign shores.

Hancock finished with $14 million in third place, bringing its tally, in its third week, up to $191,504,000. Journey to the Center of the Earth was fourth in its second week out, earning $11,910,000. Last week’s first place finisher, Hellboy II: The Golden Army fell a steep 71% in its second week out, earning only $10 million this weekend to finish in fifth place.

Another film that didn’t do so well over the past three days was Space Chimps, which debuted in seventh place with $7.3 million. And Eddie Murphy’s Meet Dave, which opened poorly last week, didn’t even make the top ten this week, declining 69% and only bringing in an additional $1.6 million for a $9.37 million total so far.

Still, the domestic weekend box-office was up by a whopping margin over the same time last year, which means that the summer of 2008, for all its economic woes, could be the most successful boxoffice summer ever.