Fantasy Moguls Original Content: SHOWBIZ STOCK WATCH: Fandango Reports 'The Dark Knight' Will Be One of the Top 3 Advance Ticket-Sellers of All Time!

The Dark Knight (Warner Bros.) is a phenomenon when it comes to advance sales online. Most films get programmed for advance sales on the Tuesday prior to opening, but the Christopher Nolan-directed Batman Begins sequel made ticketing available on Fandango about two months in advance. The result has been stratospheric sales.

According to Rick Butler, Senior Vice President and COO of Fandango, about 12-15 major studio tentpole films per year aggressively push early advance ticket sales, but the norm is 45 days or so prior to opening. "IMAX drove the early demand for The Dark Knight, but the passing of Heath Ledger, over-the-top performances, great reviews — it started to build and build," Butler says. "Only two films in the last 7-8 years have had this kind of online presale."

Those two movies are Star Wars: Epsiode III — Revenge of the Sith, and Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. "The Dark Knight may not sell more online advance tickets than Star Wars," says Butler. "That's a phenomenon that will be tough to match." For the record, Revenge of the Sith opened with $108 million and went on to a domestic cume of $380 million while Goblet scored a $102 million three-day start on its way to $280 million in the US.

In addition to selling tickets for more than 15,000 locations, Fandango.com also has become an important content provider with an estimated 6.3 million unique visitors in May. According to Nielsen, the Web site has seen more than 24 percent year-over-year growth in unique visitors. The company is reporting Thursday midnight sellouts of The Dark Knight across the country, and many theatres have scheduled additional 3:00 a.m. to 6:00 a.m. showings to accommodate the enormous demand.