Knight Vanquished by Thunder

Monday, August 18, 2008
By: Ryan Ball

After four weeks atop the North American box office chart, Warner Bros.’ The Dark Knight has finally been knocked down a peg by the DreamWorks/Paramount comedy Tropic Thunder. The Ben Stiller/Robert Downey Jr./Jack Black vehicle raked in an estimated $26 million to win the weekend. Dark Knight finished second with around $16.7 million, lifting its domestic gross to roughly $471 million and pushing its worldwide total to the $800 million mark. This Saturday, the Warner Bros. pic also became the second top-grossing movie of all-time on the 30th day of its release. The Dark Knight's North American total gross is now $471,493,000, ahead of Fox's Star Wars with $460,998,007. The No. 1 spot still belongs to Paramount's Titanic with $600,788,188. It should be noted that none of these totals are adjusted for inflation or higher ticket prices.

Lukewarm reviews from the fanboy community didn’t stop moviegoers from checking out Lucasfilm Animation’s Star Wars: The Clone Wars. The feature-length introduction to Cartoon Network’s upcoming CG-animated television series bowed at No. 3 with an opening gross of approximately $15.5 million. Animated by Lucasfilm Animation’s studio in Singapore the modestly budgeted pic will surely turn a tidy profit while promoting the September launch of the TV show.

Fly Me to the Moon, another computer-animated adventure set in space, did well for a limited release. Distributed by Summit Ent. in about 452 theaters equipped for stereoscopic 3-D projection, the movie made an estimated $2 million in the U.S., and pulled in another $2 million overseas. Produced by nWave Pictures and Illuminata Picutres, the film is being hyped as the first animated film designed from the ground up for 3-D presentation. The stereoscopic aspect should keep it in theaters for some time to come. The 3-D screenings of Journey to the Center of the Earth have been well attended this summer and greatly contributed to a worldwide gross of nearly $100 million to date.

Twentieth Century Fox’s supernatural thriller Mirrors, starring Kiefer Southerland, opened at No. 4, taking in roughly $11 million in North America over the weekend. Rounding out the top five is Sony’s stoner comedy Pineapple Express. The pairing of actors Seth Rogan and James Franco has yielded approximately $63 million domestically since last week’s opening.

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