NEW YORK -- As Chris Finegan watched Heath Ledger's stunning portrayal of the Joker in The Dark Knight on Friday, he couldn't help but think of another actor who wasn't on the screen: James Dean, who also died prematurely and tragically, nearly 53 years ago.

"Heath Ledger is going to have the same impact on our culture as James Dean did," said Finegan, one of many fans across the country who were both awed and saddened by Ledger's performance.

"He went out with a hell of a bang," said Finegan's son, Alex, 18, who wore a T-shirt emblazoned with Ledger's leering Joker face in cracked white makeup and those red lips frozen in a sickening smile. "He stole the show. It was everything I expected and more."

Manhattan movie theaters are not usually packed at

9 a.m. on weekdays, but there was not a free seat to be seen at the AMC Lincoln Square multiplex Friday morning, and lines lengthened all day. Many fans were back after trying and failing -- like the Finegans -- to get into packed midnight performances.

Media By Numbers, a tracking firm, said the Warner Bros. film, directed by Christopher Nolan, set a box-office record for a midnight debut, bringing in $18.5 million Friday from midnight screenings in 3,040 theaters -- many of them open 24 hours. That bested the 2005 performance of Star Wars Episode III: The Revenge of the Sith, which took in $16.9 million at its debut. The Dark Knight figure didn't include any of its 3 a.m. or 6 a.m. showings.

"When we were leaving at

3 a.m., people were still streaming in," said Susan Pepsin, 31, who saw the film at the Arclight theater in Hollywood.

Of course, as the latest installment in the Batman series, The Dark Knight likely would have been an event even without the added interest because of Ledger, who died at 28 in January of an accidental prescription drug overdose. But Ledger seemed at the top of everyone's mind. During the show, fans applauded many of the actor's particularly demonic moments.

The movie was Fandango's second best-selling movie in pre-sales -- Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith was No. 1 -- and made up 94 percent of this week's sales.

For Jared Yates, an engineer in St. Louis, Ledger's performance was "perfect," and there was only one moment where he was reminded -- and jarringly, too -- of the actor's death.

"It was where Joker tells Batman that the two of them 'could do this forever,'" said Yates. Of course, the moviegoer was reminded that that wouldn't be possible.

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