That was the scene late last night at the AMC Loews Cherry Hill 24 for the highly anticipated release of the Batman sequel, The Dark Knight - which opened just after midnight in more than 3,000 theaters across the United States and is expected to be the top blockbuster film of the summer.

"I found out about this movie last July 18th, so I've been waiting an entire year for this," said Hezi Lowe, a teenager from Lower Merion.

"It was frickin' awesome, man," said a moviegoer who identified himself only as Mike, 25, from Penn State, as he left the theater shortly before 3 a.m. "I don't want to spoil anything..The action sequences, the overall story from beginning to end, I was just clinging to the edge of my seat. It was just phenomenal."

Advance sales were so strong that Fandango.com reported that nearly nine tickets per second were being sold nationwide for the film Thursday afternoon.

In Cherry Hill last night, friends saved seats for each other, many arriving more than an hour before show time to get prime spots.

Moviegoers agreed - before and after the film - that their expectations were not only met but exceeded, and they were particularly moved by the late Heath Ledger's performance as The Joker.

"It lived up to the hype. It was probably the best movie I've seen this year so far...The Joker, the Joker was amazing," said Greg Noga, 17, of Marlton.

"It's the kind of thing where every time you think about you're more excited for it to come out every single day," said Megan Ward of Moorestown.

Dark Knight opened today in 4,366 theatres and in 94 IMAX theatres nationwide. Tickets for IMAX screenings of the film have already sold out - even the 3:30 and 6 a.m. shows are no longer available.

The next chance to see the film in IMAX at United Artists King of Prussia Stadium is 1:40 a.m. Monday.

Sun Dee Larson, a spokeswoman for the AMC Theatre chain, said their theaters are looking for ways to accommodate as many filmgoers as possible this weekend. Regarding the Cherry Hill Loew's theater, she said that managers were looking into ways to open up more screens to handle The Dark Knight demand.

Greg Foster, Chairman and President at IMAX Filmed Entertainment, in a telephone interview from Los Angeles, was excited and surprised to see the early success of the film's release. He believes that it marks the beginning of what will be a larger IMAX presence with major studio releases.

"We are basically at capacity. It's blowing my expectations out of the water. I would be completely disingenuous if I told you that the degree of excitement surrounding this launch would be at the level that it's at today. I'm a little kid on this one," Foster said.

The number of advance tickets sold online through Fandango.com has already bumped The Dark Knight into the number one spot for most ticket sales for a midnight opener and are pushing it towards being the best three-day weekend opener in history, which means potentially knocking Spiderman 3 out of first place. That movie brought in a record $59.8 million on its opening day last year.

"People thought it would do well but not this well. This Friday may be the top selling ticket day of all time for Fandango, very possibly for movie history" said Harry Medved, spokesperson for Fandango.com, who recommended seing the film Sunday night where more seats are available for the general theaters.

"When we did a survey back in March, we asked our users which summer movie they were most excited about. They said it was Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. So this took us by surprise. It has outpaced Jones already. . .94 percent of all weekly ticket sales are for The Dark Knight," Medved said.

While the movie has attracted attention because of its predecessor's success and its all-star cast, interest rose in the film after the death in January of one of the film's stars, Heath Ledger, whose dark role as The Joker in the film is said to have deeply affected him.

"It is also word of mouth of his performance that is driving ticket sales," Medved said. There is already talk of Ledger's work in the film as being Oscar-worthy.

Fandango.com did a survey of over 3,000 users between July 2nd and July 7th, where 53 percent said Heath Ledger's performance was the number one reason they wanted to see the film.