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Colorado massacre does not stop Dark Knight breaking 2012 box office record

New Batman film The Dark Knight Rises has smashed box office records for this year, beating The Avengers.

Distributed by Roadshow Films, the film took $15.1m this weekend, added to its opening day numbers of $3.5m.

Australian audiences were not put off by the tragedy in Colorado over the weekend, when a man opened fire on cinema goers watching the film.

The film also came in at the number four spot for highest opening weekend in Australian box office history, according to the Motion Picture Distributors Association of Australia.

It is behind Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 in first position, Twilight Saga: New Moon in second position and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 in third.

The Avengers has been bumped to 9th place on the ladder.

Opening across 628 screens, the film took a massive $24,048 screen average.

The film is also the highest grossing film ever at Sydney’s Imax, edging out Avatar. Mark Brepherton, CEO of Imax Darling Harbour said: “It is our biggest opening weekend ever, bigger than Avatar in gross takings but we’ve sold more tickets than Avatar. And it’s significantly bigger than Dark Knight’s opening week.”

Shot with over an hour’s worth of footage in the Imax format, Sydney’s Imax screen, the largest in the world, reportedly sold over 7000 tickets across 24 sessions.

Brepherton said despite the Colorado tragedy, there was not a single refund: “It doesn’t seem to have affected audiences behaviour. Partly you see it as an American thing, but people see it for what it is, a one-off event in a particular place.”

Warner Bros, and its Australian distributor Roadshow Films would not comment on how the film had done locally.

A representative for theatrical advertising service Val Morgan said no advertisers pulled out of running ahead of the film: “There is absolutely no concern from advertisers backing the film.”

Elsewhere, Australian film Not Suitable For Children took $86,000 at the box office in its second week. Distributed by Icon, the film saw a screen average of $2,042 across 42 screens taking the film to $344,635 in total. The film placed 11th on the week’s table.

Australian independent documentary I Am Eleven took $20,128 in its third week in release. The film will have added 16 screens to its opening week of just two for a total of 18. The film has made $85,072 to date.

Rolf De Heer’s new film The King Is Dead has added another screen and another $14,000 to its total in its second week in release. The film, now screening across five screens nationally took an average of $2,825 for a total of $29,579 to place 11th, up seven spots on the limited release ladder.

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