MUMBAI: The Dark Knight Rises, the latest Batman movie from the Warner Bros. Entertainment, which stars Christian Bale as Batman, has collected Rs 250 million in its opening weekend in India.

The first weekend collections are more than what Dar Media had paid to secure the domestic distribution rights of the film. The distributor has paid almost Rs 180 million for the all-India theatrical distribution rights; the only other Hollywood film to have been sold to a single theatrical distributor was Spider-Man 3, which was released in 2007. Incidentally, the film‘s Indian distribution rights were sold by Sony Pictures Entertainment to Percept Picture for around Rs 150 million.

The first of the Batman series, Batman Begins, was released in 2005 across 70 screens (57 prints) and generated around Rs 13.6 million in the first three days from the Indian box-office, while the sequel, The Dark Knight, which released in 2008 across 250 screens (210 prints) earned around Rs 38 million in the opening weekend, according to Warner Bros.

The record for being the highest Hollywood grosser in India in the opening weekend is held by The Amazing Spider-Man released on 29 June. The film generated Rs 340 million for Sony Pictures Entertainment.

However, The Dark Knight Rises was released with around 650 prints across 700 screens, while The Amazing Spider-Man released across 1,500 screens.

"The Christoper Nolan film opened very well. It ran to almost houseful capacity on Friday and during the weekend too, the frenzy continued. But it would have been another picture, had the film been released in 3D, since the ticket prices are higher for 3D films," said Cinemax DGM Girish Wankhede.