Cast members (from L-R) Jack Black, Tom Cruise, Matthew McConaughey, Ben Stiller and Robert Downey Jr. pose at the premiere of "Tropic Thunder" at the Mann's Village theatre in Westwood, California August 11. The movie opens in the US on August 13.- Xinhua/Reuters

Dream Works' big-budget comedy "Tropic Thunder" topped the box office in North America this weekend, knocking Warner Bros.' latest Batman film out of the number one spot after it reigned in theaters for more than one month.

"Tropic Thunder," which stars Hollywood big names Ben Stiller, Robert Downey Jr., Jack Black and Tom Cruise, opened to rave reviews and took in US$26 million over the three-day period, according to box office tracking firm Media By Numbers Sunday.

The film took in about 37 millions since its Wednesday release in US and Canadian theaters as it continued the summer trend of opening new films in the middle of the week.

Meanwhile, "The Dark Knight" slipped to second with US$16.8 million over the weekend. As predicted, the sixth installment of the Batman franchise surpassed the original "Star Wars" Saturday to become the second-highest gross film ever in North America, with US$471.5 million over five weeks.

The 1997 "Titanic" remains the highest-grossing movie of all time in North America, with a take of nearly US$601 million. It is also No. 1 globally with a worldwide gross of US$1.84 billion.

An animated George Lucas production called "Star Wars: The Clone Wars" opened in third place this weekend with some US$15.5 million. The film, also released by Warner Bros., is a prequel to the original movies and timed to launch a new Cartoon Network series.

"Mirrors," a 20th Century Fox horror tale about a security guard whose family is terrorized by spirits, opened at No. 4 with US$11.1 million over the weekend, while last week's No. 2 film "Pineapple Express" slipped to No. 5 with US$10 million.

Hollywood appears to be matching last year's record ticket sales pace, as the movie industry has taken in about US$6.3 billion so far this year, almost same as that in the same period last year.