Dark Knight breaks $300m record

Christian Bale (pictured) is Batman, with Heath Ledger playing The Joker Talking Shop: Batman composer Hans Zimmer

The new Batman film has broken another box office record in North America as it spends a second week at number one.

The Dark Knight passed the $300m (£151m) mark quicker than any other movie, doing so 10 days after release.

Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest held the previous record, which was set in 16 days in 2006.

The Dark Knight took $75.6m (£38.1m) over the weekend in the US and Canada, with comedy Step Brothers, starring Will Ferrell, new at number two.

It took $30m (£15.1m), knocking last week's runner-up, Mamma Mia!, into third place.

Ferrell and co-star John C Reilly reunited with director Adam McKay, who had been responsible for their earlier collaboration Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby.

"It really is a terrific start," said Rory Bruer, the head of distribution for Sony. The chemistry between the stars was "great", he added.

NORTH AMERICAN BOX OFFICE 1. The Dark Knight ($75.6m) 2. Step Brothers ($30.0m, pictured) 3. Mamma Mia! ($17.8m) 4. The X Files: I Want to Believe ($10.2m) 5. Journey to the Centre of the Earth ($9.4m) 6. Hancock ($8.2m) 7. Wall-E ($6.3m) 8. Hellboy II: The Golden Army ($4.9m) 9. Space Chimps ($4.4m) 10. Wanted ($2.7m) Source: Media By Numbers

The X Files: I Want to Believe, which has reunited David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson, was a new entry at number four.

The film is the sequel to the big-screen drama released 1998, and comes six years after the final episode of the TV show which spawned the movies.

It took $10.2m (£5.1m), which was "within our reasonable expectations", according to Chris Aronson, the distribution executive for 20th Century Fox.

"I read some X Files fan sites and the postings on there were incredibly positive about the film," he told the Associated Press.

"The hardcore X Files fans, they're happy. And frankly, that's who the movie was made for."

The Dark Knight had already set a record for revenue on an opening weekend and is now the second-biggest film of 2008 in North America, just behind Iron Man, which stands at $315m (£159m).

Starring Christian Bale as Batman and the late Heath Ledger as The Joker, it "seems to be unstoppable", said Paul Dergarabedian, president of box office tracking company Media By Numbers.

He added the idea of The Dark Knight passing Titanic's all-time record of $600m (£302m) was "not all that far-fetched any more".