'The Dark Knight Rises' Above The Competition Again

By Bill Wine

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - It's not quite rising and it's not quite falling.

The Dark Knight Rises, that is, the Batman-thriller sequel that took first place at the summer box office for the third straight weekend, but with a margin of victory that continued to diminish.  It earned an estimated $36-million.

Related: See Bill Wine's review of The Dark Knight Rises

The science fiction remake, Total Recall, with Colin Farrell, claimed second place on its debut weekend with a total of $26–million.

Third place went to the weekend's other new mainstream release, the family sequel, Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days, with $15–million.

Rounding out the top five were the holdovers, Ice Age: Continental Drift and The Watch, with $8-million and $6-million, respectively.

But it's The Dark Knight Rises that continues to dominate the August box office despite running behind the pace of its predecessor, The Dark Knight, with a cumulative total already above $350-million.