The Dark Knight Rises crosses billion dollar milestone at box office

The final instalment of Christopher Nolan‘s Batman trilogy, The Dark Knight Rises, has cracked the billion dollar mark at the worldwide box office.

It is now the 12th highest grossing film of all time, and sits just above The Dark Knight on the all-time highest earners chart.

The picture has so-far earned $431 million at the U.S. box office, but won’t even come close to topping its predecessor’s $533 million domestic tally. It is likely the shootings that took place during one of the film’s opening night screenings in Aurora scared away a number of potential viewers.

That fear did not spread internationally, with $574 million worth of takings coming from overseas audiences.

But even with a cume of $1.005 billion, The Dark Knight Rises is not even close to besting 2012’s biggest cinema release. That honour belongs to The Avengers, which this weekend cracked $1.5 billion in receipts, further solidifying its position as the third highest grossing film of all time.

Discuss: Did you see both in cinemas?