The Dark Knight sold over 10 million combined Blu-ray and standard DVD units in the U.S. during its first week of release, according to Home Media Magazine (HMM).  The Dark Knight posted the strongest opening week of 2008 and vaulted to the top of the 2008 list, opening a slight lead over Pixar’s Wall-E, the surprise second place finisher in 2008’s DVD derby.  Marvel Studios’ Iron Man had posted the previous top first week sales with Iron Man, which moved 7.2 million units when it debuted on September 30th.

The Dark Knight’s worldwide total is over 13.5 million combined DVD units sold during its first week.  TDK also blew away Iron Man’s Blu-ray record of 850,000 units by selling 1.7 million Blu-ray discs worldwide during its first week.  According to HMM, Warners reports that more than 300,000 customers have already activated the digital copies included with the Blu-ray edition.

Over the next few weeks The Dark Knight, which debuted on December 8th with single-day sales of over 3 million units (see “TDK DVD Explodes Out of the Gate”), should establish itself as far and away the DVD leader of 2008.  It has already supplied a major boost to the sagging home entertainment market, though its total impact won’t be clear until mid-January.