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Tropic Thunder holds onto US top spot for second week

Tropic Thunder

Story by Jack Foley

BEN Stiller’s Tropic Thunder held onto the top spot at the US box office for a second week, despite competition from two possible challengers.

The DreamWorks/Paramount’s comedy took an estimated $16.1 million in its second weekend, taking its 10-day total to $65.7 million.

The figures were enough to beat the Sony comedy The House Bunny into second place, and the hotly-tipped Jason Statham vehicle Death Race into third.

The Dark Knight, meanwhile, continued to perform strong, taking in $10.3 million in its sixth week of release to hold onto fourth spot and bring its gross to date up to $489.2 million.

In what is proving to be one of the busiest summers on record for the volume of releases, and the size of movies, Tropic Thunder became only the third film to hold onto the coveted No. 1 spot for more than one week, following in the footsteps of Iron Man (also starring Robert Downey Jr) and, of course, The Dark Knight.

Its achievement is all the more impressive given that it’s an R-rated comedy and opened amid controversy surrounding the content of some of its jokes – several of which prompted disabled groups in the US to protest at the film’s LA premiere.

Of the week’s new releases, The House Bunny, starring Anna Faris, performed better than expected and led Sony distribution president Rory Bruer to declare that the company was “very happy with the results”.

The comedy, produced by Adam Sandler, centres on a Playboy bunny (played by Faris) who, upon her birthday, is evicted from Hugh Hefner’s pad for “being too old” and forced to take up a new job as the housemother at the most unpopular sorority on campus.

In contrast, Death Race, starring Statham, Joan Allen, Ian McShane and Tyrese Gibson, performed below expectation, as distributor Universal had been anticipating the top spot.

The film, a loose remake of Roger Corman’s 1975 production Death Race 2000, had received a mixed response from critics but was still expected to perform strong.

Nikki Rocco, distribution president of Universal, was forced to concede: “There’s no question that it was softer than it might have been, but the results were fine.”

Death Race opens in UK cinemas in September, as does Tropic Thunder.