Batman sequel “The Dark Knight” kept up its record-breaking pace this weekend, pushing its total receipts since opening to a stunning 313.8 million dollars, box office tracker Exhibitor Relations said.

Director Christopher Nolan’s follow-up to 2005’s “Batman Begins,” with Christian Bale in the lead and the late Heath Ledger as the villainous Joker, topped the previous second-weekend record of “Shrek 2″, with 75.2 million in ticket sales over the Friday-Sunday period, final figures showed.

That followed its record for a debut weekend, when it overtook previous mark-holder “Spider-Man 3″ with an unprecedented 158.4 million dollars in seats sold.

The film is helped by the buzz over Ledger’s performance, who died of an accidental drug overdose in New York in January, with many industry experts speculating that he may win a rare posthumous Oscar for the role.

Far back in second place was “Step Brothers,” a Will Farrell-starring comedy of two middle-aged men still living at home when their respective widowed parents meet and get married.

On its opening weekend “Step Brothers,” directed by Adam McKay, sold 30.1 million dollars in tickets, Exhibitor Relations said.

Third was the ABBA musical “Mamma Mia” with a take of 17.8 million in its second weekend, followed in fourth by “The X-Files: I Want to Believe,” which took in 10.2 million on its opening weekend.

In fifth place was “Journey to the Center of the Earth 3D,” which earned 9.7 million in its third week.

Rounding out the top 10 in the final figures for the weekend were the Will Smith action flick “Hancock,” earning 8.3 million to take its four-week total to 206.5 million; the acclaimed animation “Wall-E,” 6.4 million for a five week take of 195.3 million; “Hellboy II” (5.1 million); “Space Chimps” (4.5 million); and “Wanted” (2.7 million).

With “The Dark Knight’s” smashing run, Exhibitor Relations said that movie theater ticket sales so far this year hit 5.84 billion dollars, barely behind last year’s figure for the same period of 5.85 billion dollars.

Let’s forget for just a moment about all of the hallelujah reviews surrounding Heath Ledger’s performance in “The Dark Knight.” Can Heath Ledger win an Oscar just because he’s holding an I.O.U.?

Many stars win an Academy Award because they’re overdue. No one — not even Paul Newman — thinks that Newman gave the best performance of his career in the movie that earned him academy gold: “The Color of Money.” But he won merely because voters felt guilty that they stiffed him over seven previous nominations. Same thing for Al Pacino. What a pity that voters finally caved in and gave him an Oscar for his cornball attempt to pretend he’s blind in “Scent of a Woman.”

Considering that Heath Ledger didn’t finish shooting his role in “The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus,” “The Dark Knight” is probably the last chance Oscar voters will get to catch up with Heath Ledger, who they stiffed in 2005. The New York Film Critics Circle got it right when it gave its best-actor laurels to Heath Ledger for “Brokeback Mountain.” Everybody else heaped overblown kudos that year upon Philip Seymour Hoffman for a lousy, historically dishonest portrayal of Truman Capote. As everyone knows, Capote was a flamboyant firecracker, not the quiet, mousy doormat Hoffman gave us while trying too hard to portray a cliché, angst-haunted artiste. But “Capote” had snooty, art-house pretense, so it swept the awards scene. Lucky for Hoffman, that movie came out a few months before the much-better, more accurate “Infamous,” which spotlighted the same period in the novelist’s life with a luminous, perfect-pitch performance by Toby Jones that reminds us how awful Hoffman was.

But I digress. Back to Heath Ledger, who clearly should’ve beaten Hoffman. He never got recognized at all for his many other socko roles in “Candy,” “I’m Not There,” “The Patriot,” “Ned Kelly,” “Two Hands,” “Cassanova.”

Now Heath Ledger really deserves it, if we believe the New York Times’ review of his Joker in “The Dark Knight”: ” He’s just a clown in black velvet, but he’s also some kind of masterpiece.”

“This is a career-making performance if ever there was one,” says USA Today about Heath Ledger in “The Dark Knight.” “Too bad it was a career-ending one as well.”

“Not since Hannibal Lecter has a villain been so terrifying, so engaging and so memorable,” says E! Online. If that’s an apt analogy, then it’s good kudos news for Heath Ledger considering Anthony Hopkins won best actor.