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For all the veins of Dark Knight interest Warner Bros. has opened among stampeding fanboys, late-night talk-show hosts and, er, Michael Bay, at the end of the day nothing succeeds like success. To wit: When your showtimes — midnight to 6 a.m. in some markets — become national news, you can probably just put the campaign on cruise-control and move on to the next film:

In a frenzy, fans have bought so many late-night tickets for the July 18 opening of the next Batman movie that theaters in places like San Diego, Chicago, and even Eagan, Minn., are scheduling 6 a.m. screenings for those who can't get in at midnight or 3 in the morning.

Movie theaters have sometimes opened their doors at odd hours for their most highly anticipated films, say, an entry in the Star Wars series, and midnight shows have become part of the summer blockbuster ritual.

But all-night sellouts far in advance of an opening have come only with the near ubiquity of online ticket sales. Fandango.com, for instance, reports well over 1,500 wee-hour showings for The Dark Knight in theaters that typically do not open their doors before about 10 a.m.

And don't even get us started about ticket retailers worming their ways into the story. Is it July 18 yet? We feel like we're soon to hit the Batwall.