‘Tropic Thunder’ stays hot at the box office

By Patrick Luce Aug 25, 2008, 11:07 GMT

Comedy where five actors who go on location and find themselves relying on their boot camp experiences when they get stuck in a real war-like situation. ...more

The Ben Stiller comedy “Tropic Thunder” took the No. 1 spot at the weekend box office for a second week with $16.1 million.

Variety reports the film dropped 38%, but managed to beat out the Sony comedy “The House Bunny” (which claimed the No. 2 spot with $15.1 million) and the Universal remake “Death Race” (which took the No. 3 spot with $12.3 million).

“Tropic Thunder” also joined the ranks of “The Dark Knight” and “Iron Man” as the only films to manage to remain on top for more than one week this summer.

“Tropic Thunder” continues to draw an audience thanks to its politically incorrect humor (which has caused controversy and kept its name in the headlines) and an unbilled cameo by Tom Cruise.  The film has earned $65.7 million since its release.

In Variety, DreamWorks/Paramount rep Chip Sullivan stated: “We definitely felt internally we were going to be No. 1, but Saturday was a pleasant surprise.”
 
“Death Race” – which is a remake of the 1975 cult classic “Death Race 2000” – had been poised to take the weekend crown, but stalled to give “Tropic Thunder” and “The House Bunny” the lead.

Warner Bros. enjoyed a good weekend with the studio claiming the No. 4 and No. 5 spot with two of its films.

“The Dark Knight” continued its box office juggernaut run and moved closer to the $500 million domestic mark. The film took in $10.3 million during the weekend and has earned $489.2 million since its release.

The animated “Star Wars: The Clone Wars” showed that the force is still strong with fans and earned an estimated $5.6 million. It has earned in $25 million since its release.

The weekend’s other new debuts had a rough time at the box office.

The MGM/Dimension family sports flick “The Longshots” with Ice Cube took in $4.3 million and claimed the No. 8 spot on the weekend box office. Fox continued to struggle at the box office with its comedy “The Rocker,” (which stars Rainn Wilson) claimed the No 12 spot on the weekend box office with $2.8 million.

Focus’ “Hamlet 2” opened in 53 U.S. markets this weekend, but only took in $435,294. The film is set for a wide release on Wednesday.
 
MGM/the Weinstein Co.’s new Woody Allen flick “Vicky Cristina Barcelona” dropped 20% and earned $3 million over the weekend. The film stars Scarlett Johansson, Javier Bardem and Penelope Cruz. It is on track to equal the box office results for Allen’s “Match Point” which took in $23.1 million for DreamWorks.