Of course ticket prices have increased dramatically over the last two decades. Comparing the films by estimated admissions, the webslinger still enjoys a comfortable lead with about 69 million tickets sold compared to 59 million for Batman and 57 million for Dark Knight. The new Christian Bale-Heath Ledger duel will easily surpass the admissions total for the Michael Keaton-Jack Nicholson showdown by the end of this week. Peter Parker fans can still hold onto this one record for now, but when the new Batpic hits the $500M mark later this month, it will fly past Spidey in tickets sold.

Warner Bros. saw a mild 41% drop on Tuesday from the same day a week ago indicating solid strength for Knight's run. The actioner now sits at number seven on the all-time domestic blockbusters list and should approach $416M by the time it starts its fourth weekend on Friday morning. Among global blockbusters of 2008, Dark Knight sits at number two with $609M trailing just Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull which has raked in over $773M worldwide. Since the Batpod is still racing into more major markets around the world, it should snag that title as well by the end of the summer.

By the end of this coming frame, the unstoppable juggernaut will soar to the number three spot on the all-time list trailing just Titanic and Star Wars. Ticket prices were different during the eras of those films so Knight's admissions tally will not be as close, but for today's time this is truly a historic box office achievement.

All-Time Domestic Blockbusters list - UPDATED