The Dark Knight is Doing Boffo Box Office

Some folks are willing to pay ridiculous amounts for tickets to see The Dark Knight:

NEW YORK (CBS) ― With expectations that 'The Dark Knight' will soar into box office history this weekend, fans aren't holding back in their desire to see the most anticipated movie of the year.

Tickets are sold out just about everywhere in Manhattan for any showtime, leaving 'Batman' die-hards who want to see the flick forced to dish out top dollar for a showing.

CraigsList was flooded Friday with ads for buyers and sellers of weekend tickets. While most seem to be willing to spend around $50 for a ticket -- well above the $11 face value for many theaters -- others say they'll beat any offer as they expect theaters to be sold-out for an extended period of time.

"I'd shell out up to $150 per ticket," city resident Saad Jafri tells WCBSTV.com. He posted an ad on CraigsList offering to pay whatever it takes to see the film.

Of course, Jafri says there's some other motivation involved as well. "I've never seen anything you can text a girl that'll get her to respond with a 'YES!' to meeting up more promptly than, 'Dark Knight IMAX tonight. You in?'" he says.

We dropped my daughter and her friend off at the Irvine Spectrum Friday night about 6:30 and it was chaos over there. I've never seen traffic around the center as bad as it was last night, and I'm guessing the movie had a lot to do with that. There's a huge theater complex in there that was probably showing The Dark Knight on four or five of their biggest screens. It'll be the hit of the summer, that's for sure.