‘Tropic’ Thunders as ‘Knight’ Becomes 2nd Largest Ever

Published by Jeff Leins on: August 17th, 2008

After four weekends at the top setting box office records, The Dark Knight was dethroned by Ben Stiller’s Tropic Thunder.

The R-rated comedy made an estimated $26 million in its opening weekend and TDK earned $16.8 million, making the Batman sequel the second largest domestic gross of all-time.

Tropic Thunder opened Wednesday to a storm of controversy, protest, and boycott because of its use of the word “retard.” Strangely enough, very little was said about Robert Downey Jr.’s blackface portrayal of an African American character. The comedy has made $37 million in five days, a smaller take than Pineapple Express was able to do just a week before.

Analysts are saying this brand of R-rated humor skews to a more sophisticated, 25+ age group than Pineapple, a demographic that was at home this week watching Michael Phelps win a record-breaking eight gold medals in Olympic swimming. Sports may have dampened its opening, but it still managed to take the top spot.

Meanwhile, The Dark Knight passed the original Star Wars (Episode IV) to become the second-largest movie in U.S. history. Well, if you don’t count the number of tickets or inflation. The 471.5 million domestic dollars is still a sizable distance behind the largest of all-time, Titanic ($600.1 million). Experts are predicting it to cross the $500 million threshold, but ultimately settle for second. The Dark Knight has made $735 million worldwide so far.

It’s fitting TDK pushed Star Wars to third all-time because a cartoon Star Wars installment also took third thanks to the bat. Star Wars: The Clone Wars only opened to $15.5 million, a disappointing bow considering it used to be such a beloved franchise. But negative reviews (19% on RottenTomatoes) and waning interest meant no one was lining up around the block for blocky cartoon Jedis. Even the widely despised Phantom Menace managed a 64% fresh rating among critics.

In the packed weekend, R-rated horror movie Mirrors fared decently considering what it was up against. It made a respectable $11.1 million and fourth place.

But the other big winner (besides Tropic Thunder) was Woody Allen’s latest film, Vicky Cristina Barcelona. It made $3.7 million in just 692 theaters, good enough for 10th place. The PG-13 drama has a lesbian moment between Scarlett Johansson and Penelope Cruz, and a threesome adding Javier Bardem, so that might explain why it’s Allen’s second largest opening in his 42-year career.

1. Tropic Thunder $26 million
2. The Dark Knight $16.8 million
3. Star Wars: The Clone Wars $15.5 million
4. Mirrors $11.1 million
5. Pineapple Express $10 million
6. The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor $8.6 million
7. Mamma Mia! $6.5 million
8. Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2 $5.9 million
9. Step Brothers $5 million
10. Vicky Cristina Barcelona $3.7 million