"Tropic Thunder" was the number one movie again at the box office in North
America this weekend, as the action comedy from actor-director Ben Stiller took
in an estimated US$16.1 million over the three-day period.
That would make the DreamWorks production, which is in its second week in
release, to remain at the top of box offices in the United States and Canada for
the second weekend in a row, according to Los Angeles-based box office tracking
firm Media By Numbers yesterday.
A pair of new releases took the next two spots at the box office, as Sony
Pictures' sorority-themed comedy "The House Bunny" opened with US$15.1 million
and Univeral's thriller "Death Race" debuted with US$12.4 million over the
weekend.
Hollywood's biggest success this summer, Warner Bros.' Batman sequel "The
Dark Knight" slipped to fourth with US$10.3 million in ticket sales, but the
film was closing in on a US$half-billion in North America in its sixth week of
release after it became the second-biggest domestic release in history last
week.
Total box office revenues so far this summer are US$3.9 billion, slightly
higher than that in same period last summer, when Hollywood saw a record of
US$4.16 billion in the lucrative season. But higher ticket prices mean the
actual summer admissions are down about 3 percent this year.
