Apple has announced that The Dark Knight is the best-selling movie download of 2008 even though the movie won’t actually be available on Apples iTunes store until December 9th.  But pre-orders for The Dark Knight have been so strong that it has now taken in more money than Pixar’s Wall-E, which has been unceremoniously Bat-bumped to second place.  Kung Fu Panda is now in third place followed by Iron Man and National Treasure: Book of Secrets.

The iTunes pre-orders are another indication that The Dark Knight will be the #1 DVD release of the year.  Pre-orders of The Dark Knight DVDs, which are also to street on Tuesday, December 9th, have been heavily promoted on a number of Internet sites and at Blockbuster locations.  With DVD sales down for the year (9% in Q3 according to Nielsen VideoScan), it will be up to The Dark Knight, which nearly all analysts expect to end up as the best-selling DVD of 2008, to make up a lot of ground if Hollywood hopes to avoid a significant drop in DVD sales for the year.