'The Dark Knight' needed 18 days to reach the milestone, 'Shrek 2' required 43

"The Dark Knight" continues to accumulate box office records, becoming the fastest film to cross the $400 million mark.

With the addition of Monday's (Aug. 4) $6.287 million estimated gross, the overall domestic take for "The Dark Knight" stands at $400.04 million after only 18 days in release.

The previous recordholder in fastest-to-$400-million category was "Shrek 2," which passed the boundary in a far slower 43 days.

Ignoring pesky factors like inflation, "The Dark Knight" now stands at No. 8 on the all-time domestic box office list. The Christopher Nolan-directed film will probably move ahead of " Spider-Man" ($403.7 million) on Tuesday. From there, it's just a hop, skip and a jump to "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest" at No. 6 with its $423 million domestic total.

After dropping only 43 percent to $42.7 million last weekend, "The Dark Knight" is on target to become only the second film to pass $500 million domestically.

According to the good folks at BoxOfficeMojo.com, if you adjust for inflation, "The Dark Knight" stands at No. 67 of all-time, more than a billion dollars behind "Gone with the Wind."