"The Dark Knight" stayed in the number one spot at the box office for the fourth straight week knocking "Shrek 2" down from the third position on the all-time U.S.A. box-office charts with $441.5 million, behind "Titanic" ($600.8 million) and the original "Star Wars" ($461 million).

"Pineapple Express" failed at knocking "The Dark Knight" from its first position. It scored $22.4 million for the weekend and total of $40.4 million since opening Wednesday.

Besides "The Dark Knight", with $26 million, this weekend’s Box-Office Top Five also features the following movies: "Pineapple Express", with $22.4 million, followed by "The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor", with $16.1 million, "The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2", which earned $10.8 million and "Step Brothers" with $8.9 million. Number six was “Mamma Mia!” with $8.1 million.

Warner Bros., a unit of Time Warner Inc, said it expects "Dark Knight" to surpass "Star Wars" next weekend and end up with about $520 million.

The predecessor of Christopher Nolan’s “The Dark Knight,” starring Christian Bale, the late Heath Ledger and Morgan Freeman, was “The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King”, which remained number one for four consecutive weekends. But this happened back in December 2003.

The Sony executives weren’t that disappointed in "Pineapple Express". The comedy starring Seth Rogen and James Franco is basically about two potheads. So the subject of the movie doesn’t necessarily intend to set any kind of records. "Everything about this movie has just played out really well," said Rory Bruer, Sony's president of domestic distribution.