‘Tropic Thunder’ Wins Third Straight as ‘Knight’ Passes $500M

Published by Jeff Leins on: August 31st, 2008

Tropic Thunder took on four more openers this weekend and still emerged the winner, earning an estimated $11.5 million. Meanwhile, The Dark Knight passed the coveted $500 million total, reaching the goal in a record 45 days.

Last week Thunder took on bunnies, death cars, an aptly named Longshots, and a Rocker. This week it beat out another four wide releases in the same way.

Friday it was in a dead heat with Babylon A.D., a PG-13 science fiction movie starring Vin Diesel. But just like a week before with The House Bunny, Thunder gathered strength from its adult audience on Saturday-Sunday and took the top spot. The R-rated comedy is positioned well to win Labor Day.

Babylon A.D. only made $9.7 million, a bomb no matter how you spin it, but it’s especially painful on a $70 million budget. Analysts expected it to finish on top for the weekend, but exceptionally poor reviews from critics and even its own director tanked it to a disappointing second.

The Dark Knight took third place with $8.8 million, pushing its total above $500 million domestically. The comic book sequel continues to perform steadily, consistently finishing in the top five even after seven weeks. It holds the most (27) notable box office records on BoxOfficeMojo, a site that aggregates movie ticket sales.

The Don Cheadle/Guy Pearce thriller Traitor performed as expected, a $7.9 million weekend after opening wide on Wednesday. The movie is based on an original idea by comedian Steve Martin.

Disaster Movie lived up to its name, tanking with just $6.2 million. The spoof movie from Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer had by far the worst opening for the duo who made Meet the Spartans, Epic Movie, and Date Movie. Hopefully this is a sign we won’t see any more of these.

An even worse weekend bombing was College, which made only $2.1 million. Though MGM was smart enough to only dump $7 million on this retread comedy.

1. Tropic Thunder $11.5 million
2. Babylon A.D. $9.7 million
3. The Dark Knight $8.8 million
4. The House Bunny $8.3 million
5. Traitor $7.9 million
6. Death Race $6.22 million
7. Disaster Movie $6.17 million
8. Mamma Mia! $4.4 million
9. Pineapple Express $3.4 million
10. Vicky Cristina Barcelona $3 million