‘Tropic Thunder’ Knocks Batman Out Of First Place
‘The Dark Knight’ has been leading the box office for weeks now with no prospect of dropping to the second spot. The only one who could have the chance to beat Batman down would be the hilarious comedy directed and starred by none other then Ben Stiller.
The DreamWorks-Paramount comedy “Tropic Thunder” with Ben Stiller, Robert Downey Jr., Jack Black and Tom Cruise debuted at No. 1 with $26 million, bumping “The Dark Knight” to second place after four weekends on top, according to studio estimates Sunday.
The Warner Bros. Batman flick pulled in $16.8 million to raise its total to $471.5 million. “The Dark Knight” passed the original “Star Wars” ($461 million) and now stands as No. 2 on the all-time domestic charts, behind only “Titanic” ($600.8 million). Taking inflation into account, “The Dark Knight” trails both movies in actual tickets sold, however. “The Dark Knight” would need to gross about $900 million to match the number of admissions for “Titanic” and about $1.2 billion to equal “Star Wars.”
Warner Bros. expects “The Dark Knight” to top out at about $530 million domestically, said Dan Fellman, the studio’s head of distribution. “The Dark Knight” managed to fend off another “Star Wars” movie this weekend. The animated tale “Star Wars: The Clone Wars,” also released by Warner Bros., opened at No. 3 with $15.5 million.
Families made up two-thirds of the audience for “Clone Wars,” Fellman said. “Star Wars” creator George Lucas, who has an executive producer credit on “Clone Wars,” intended the movie as an introduction to his “Clone Wars” TV show debuting this fall on the Cartoon Network.
“It was targeted to a specific audience for specific reasons,” Fellman said. “We accomplished that mission, and it will continue in another medium.” “Tropic Thunder” was the third R-rated comedy to open solidly in recent weeks, following “Pineapple Express” and “Step Brothers.” Most summer comedies are rated PG-13, since an R rating limits the audience by requiring anyone younger than 17 to come with an adult.
“We’re thrilled, quite frankly. It played out exactly how we hoped,” said DreamWorks spokesman Chip Sullivan. “Tropic Thunder” raised its total to $37 million since opening Wednesday.