This weekend look for theaters to be dominated by a dark and stormy knight. Christopher Nolan’s latest Batman epic is opening in at least 4,366 theaters, and the 2,500 midnight screenings have been sold out for some time. This has sparked still more advance screenings, at odd hours like 3 and 6 am, which have even been selling out, making The Dark Knight the biggest advance ticket seller of all time.

Advance ticket sales for The Dark Knight screenings in IMAX theaters are also breaking records. Six of the film’s action sequences were filmed with a 65-milimeter IMAX camera, and while those scenes are actually sharper than the rest on a normal screen, on a huge IMAX screen they are jaw-dropping.

Fans realize they’re seeing every penny of the staggering $180 million budget on whichever screen they choose. With so many theaters and such an overwhelming amount of positive advance buzz, it’s a wonder any other films dare open opposite what many are calling Batman’s greatest adventure ever.

But there is a reason Universal has the chutzpah to open Mamma Mia!, the film adaptation of a musical based on the catalog of 70s popstars ABBA, opposite such formidable competition. Recall that, earlier in the summer, nothing significant dared open the same weekend as Hancock, The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian or Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. That’s because those were films that seemed impervious to competition, so why even bother.

Mamma Mia! could conceivably be considered counter programming to The Dark Knight, although interest in Batman seems to cut a pretty wide swath through young and old, gay and straight, male and female demos. But just in case the pricy production with its all-star cast (Meryl Streep, Pierce Brosnan, Colin Firth) doesn’t do well, the studio can always blame it on Batman, rather than on the inference that Mamma Mia! might be a misfire.

Fox’s Space Chimps could fall in the same category. The fact that very few press screenings were held prior to its opening indicates the studio might have feared harsh reviews. Fox execs have a well-known aversion to sci-fi comedies, yet along comes Space Chimps, just a week after Eddie Murphy’s Meet Dave crashed and burned. All we can tell you is that it’s an animated movie about Simian astronauts, with voices by Andy Samburg, Cheryl Hines, Patrick Warburten, Kristen Chenowith and Jeff Daniels. It’s projected to be a big hit among the Teletubbies crowd.