News

Stiller's War Comedy Defeats The Clone Wars
Source: Box Office Mojo, Edward Douglas
August 17, 2008


The ComingSoon.net Box Office Report has been updated with studio estimates for the weekend. Be sure to check back on Monday for the final figures based on actual box office.

The reign of Warner Bros.' The Dark Knight may finally be over as six new movies made it difficult to sustain the top spot after four weeks in residence there. Even so, yesterday it passed the unadjusted gross of George Lucas' 1977 sci-fi classic Star Wars to become the second-highest grossing movie domestically with an astounding five-week box office gross of $471.5 million. (Star Wars' unadjusted gross was $461 million including a number of re-releases since its debut thirty years ago.)

It was replaced at the top by Ben Stiller's war comedy Tropic Thunder (DreamWorks), co-starring Jack Black and Robert Downey Jr., which grossed $11 million on Wednesday and Thursday, then picked up strong word-of-mouth business over the weekend with an additional $26 million, making more in five days than Stiller's last movie The Heartbreak Kid made in its entire theatrical run.

Although The Dark Knight dropped to second place with $16.8 million this weekend, it remained just ahead of George Lucas' latest Jedi adventure, the animated Star Wars: The Clone Wars (Warner Bros.), which opened in over 3,400 theaters (more than Tropic Thunder) but delivered a disappointing $15.5 million, an average of $4,500 per site. The poor showing might be blamed on the mostly negative reviews and feelings among the fanbase that it's essentially a television cartoon that didn't necessarily need to be seen in theaters.

Alexandre (The Hills Have Eyes) Aja's latest horror film Mirrors (20th Century Fox), starring Keifer Sutherland, opened in 4th place with $11.1 million in 2,664 theaters, while Sony's stoner comedy Pineapple Express, starring Seth Rogen and James Franco, dropped from second to fifth place with $10 million in its second weekend to bring its total to $63 million.

Universal Pictures took the next two spots with their returning movies The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor and the musical Mamma Mia! with $8.6 million and $6.5 million, respectively. The Brendan Fraser action flick has grossed roughly $87 million while the Meryl Streep musical has $116.4 million under its belt. It's just a couple million behind passing last year's Hairspray as the third-highest grossing movie musical.

The Warner Bros. sequel The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2 dropped to 8th place with $5.9 million and a total gross of $32.1 million, followed by the Will Ferrell-John C. Reilly comedy Step Brothers (Sony) with $5 million and a total gross of just under $91 million.

Opening in just under 700 theaters, Woody Allen's romantic comedy Vicky Cristina Barcelona (MGM/Weinstein), starring Scarlett Johansson, Javier Bardem and Penelope Cruz, rounded out the Top 10 with $3.7 million, becoming Allen's biggest opening movie since 2000's Small Time Crooks as well as the second-biggest opening of his 35-year career.

Opening in 452 digital 3D capable theaters, Summit Entertainment's G-rated animated movie Fly Me to the Moon grossed $2 million to open in 12th place, averaging $4,400 per site. Also opening moderately in 527 theaters, the Sundance pick-up Henry Poole is Here (Overture) starring Luke Wilson grossed just $800,000, averaging a pitiful $1,500 per site.

The Top 10 grossed an estimated $110 million, which is just slightly more than the Top 10 grossed in the same weekend period last year.

Click here for the full box office estimates of the top 12 films.


| 61 comments | Add a comment


Comments

Posted by: 12345678 on August 17, 2008 at 13:15:55

The Dark Knight Will Beat Titanic

I Kinda Liked Clone Wars
But Nicknames sucked, diologe sucked, hated narrator, and no grevious


Posted by: 12345678 on August 17, 2008 at 13:17:41

oh yeah and whoever they got to replace John williams and mess up the music sucks


Posted by: Red on August 17, 2008 at 13:18:43

Even thougth that I'm sad to see TDK dropping, at least the number one is a darn good film. Tropic Thunder is AWESOME!


Posted by: R Kimberlin on August 17, 2008 at 13:19:32

The Dark Knight was great but no film will ever beat Titanic.


Posted by: R Kimberlin on August 17, 2008 at 13:22:56

The Dark Knight was a great film but it will never beat Titanic. In fact, no film will ever beat it.


Posted by: Paul Gibbs on August 17, 2008 at 13:23:28

Nobody likes "The Dark Knight" better than I do, but it will NOT beat "Titanic". Simple mathematics shows us that's not going to happen. I'd be happy if it did (even though I still like "Titanic"), but it won't.


Posted by: movie guy on August 17, 2008 at 13:31:54

tom cruise was crazy freakin funny in tropic thunder!


Posted by: truth on August 17, 2008 at 13:32:50

TDK had an amazing run, but right now it's tapering off and will probably end up with $510-520 million, well short of Titanic's record.


Posted by: Gammaduck on August 17, 2008 at 13:35:58

I'm now laughing very, very hard at all of these people earlier in the week who said "Clone Wars is going to be number one because it's a STAR WARS movie! And the die-hard fans are going to make it the top film of the week."

Heh...the die-hards are dying out and Clone Wars is a crap movie with the words Star and Wars on it. Just like so many of us realists predicted.

And if Dark Knight passes $500 at the end of next weekend, I'll admit it may have a longshot crack at beating Titanic. I highly doubt it will. But the lack of interesting new product for a few weeks combined with a still-high level of interest does make it seem not 100% impossible anymore.


Posted by: HumanTorchesBanker on August 17, 2008 at 13:40:28

glad i didnt see clone wars


Posted by: Dom on August 17, 2008 at 13:40:55

thank god Tropic Thunder finally beat the dark knight for the top spot at the box office we needed a new movie to beat the bat


Posted by: Khimarhi on August 17, 2008 at 13:49:58

Dark Knight won't beat titanic but eventually someone will. You just don't have to sell as many tickets to make as much money these days. And ticket prices will keep going up. 1 day they will be so high that someone is bound to pass titanic.


Posted by: Mattman Forever on August 17, 2008 at 13:53:10

Didn't Clone Wars only cost $10 million to make? Considered Lucas barely tried, $15 million is pretty good. It's funny that it couldn't top Dark Knight in its FIFTH weekend though.


Posted by: downfall2183 on August 17, 2008 at 13:53:44

tropic thunder was great! im a huge star wars fan but i didnt go see clone wars, didnt wanna pay for something that should have been free on tv.


Posted by: acslaterson on August 17, 2008 at 13:56:33

"I'm a lead farmer mother****er!" Hahaha, RDJ killed me in that movie!


Posted by: Edward Douglas on August 17, 2008 at 14:08:03

Maybe $10 million to make (looks it) but probably $15 - 20 million for prints and marketing so Warner Bros. is the one taking the hit on the decision to release this theatrically.


Posted by: Snarky Bastard on August 17, 2008 at 14:10:18

Mattman: Less than that. They cost about $1 million per half hour, so the movie (before marketing costs) cost about $3 million.

http://io9.com/5033398/george-lucas-spills-all-about-clone-wars-at-skywalker-ranch


Posted by: Judge and Jury on August 17, 2008 at 14:18:49

I'm glad the Star Wars fans saw Clone Wars for what it is: junk. They were able to accept the prequels despite the bad acting (actually, more like bad writing and directing) because at least there were actual people in it. Lucas got what he wanted: a movie without live actors. But now the fans have spoken, and shown that all animated/cg sucks in the Star Wars universe (Beowulf was cool though).


Posted by: logan 27 on August 17, 2008 at 14:25:02

It was bound to happen eventually. Just because TDK is no longer no. 1 doesn't mean it will fold in. It should remain in the top 5 for at least a few more weeks. I see it getting close to $550 million when all is said and done. But look what it took to get a film that close to Titanic. The only film on the horizon that could come close is the next Batman film. But will it have all the right pieces and fall into place for that to happen. Who knows. And Tropic Thunder kicks ass. That movie is awesome. Robert Downey Jr is hilarious. "Hey, this mother****er is dead!"


Posted by: Jen on August 17, 2008 at 14:36:54

I've been a huge Star Wars fan since the very beginning (yeah, I'm old), but I had no desire to see this movie. Lucas had 3 movies to tell the story of the Clone Wars and we get a cheap cartoon 3 years later? No thanks.

I saw Tropic Thunder on Friday night and it was hilarious. Glad to see it take the top spot.


Posted by: Gigi on August 17, 2008 at 14:44:57

Interesting that FLY ME TO THE MOON is #4 in per screen average. Better than Clone Wars????!!! That's pretty amazing!!! Wish Journey would get the heck out of the theaters so FLY can have their run. Really ashame for an amazing movie with incredible 3D. This is a movie that needs to be seen!


Posted by: Token on August 17, 2008 at 14:46:45

The Dark Knight is #39 adjusted domestically. That is the real deal. Unadjusted numbers are not suficient to represent the economic and cultural influence of a movie in time.


Posted by: KAR on August 17, 2008 at 15:06:51

Im not going to sit here and bash anyone who liked tropic thunder, thats cool if you liked it, i just thought it was absolutely horrible, had it not been for robert downey jr and his one liners i would have walked out.


Posted by: beesknees on August 17, 2008 at 15:09:23

Tropic Thunder = Last Action Hero II.
Comedy always seems to get lost amidst $100 million dollar effects and stars in even the smallest cameos (was that Alicia Silverstone as an Oscar seat-filler?). Galaxy Quest and Three Amigos did a much better job than Thunder of sustaining gags amidst such a tricky, reflexive premise.


Posted by: Jimmy on August 17, 2008 at 15:26:12

begin the boycott of all WB films until they bring harry potter back to where it belongs in the winter. money shouldnt be the only determining factor in opening of a movie prove to the WB how stupid it is to upset fans.


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