Despite the controversies it has caused, or probably,
because of them, the action comedy “Tropic Thunder” maintained its No.1
position at the box office for a second-straight weekend, grossing $16.1
million in ticket sales for Viacom Inc.’s Dreamworks SKG studio.
The comedy starring Ben Stiller, Jack Black and Robert
Downey Jr. managed to outearn four new releases: Anna Faris’ comedy “The House
Bunny,” Jason Statham’s violent action film “Death Race,” Rainn Wilson’s “The
Rocker” and the Fred Durst-directed family movie “The Longshots.”
With a budget of $92 million, “Tropic Thunder” grossed a total
of $65,668,000 in 14 days, according to estimates from Baseline StudioSystems.
Directed by Ben Stiller, the film is far from being
politically correct, and that is why it faced many protests and calls for a
boycott by several groups that were against the film’s portrayal of mentally
disabled people. The movie mocks several other categories of people, from
Vietnam War veterans and drug addicts to overweight people. But its success
shows that, well, mockery is one of the favorite activities of human
beings...They just can’t get enough of it.
The movie tells the story of a group of self-centered, vain
actors who are taken into the jungle to change their annoying behavior. They
are supposed to make “Tropic Thunder,” a Vietnam war movie based on the book of
Sgt. Four Leaf Tayback (Nick Nolte), but they have no idea that the dangers
they face in the jungle are real, so they stay relaxed, no matter how tense the
situation gets.
On the second place, with $15.1 million, was “The House
Bunny,” (Sony), a comedy starring Anna Faris as Playboy Bunny in disgrace. Her
days of glory in the Playboy mansion are over the day she turns 27, as she is
considered too old to be a Bunny. She tries to change her luck by turning into
the “mother” of an entire sorority of unpopular girls.
According to The Los Angeles Times, Rory Bruer, president of
distribution for Sony, noted that the movie “really played well to its core
audience,” with half the audience aged under 21 and two-thirds being women. He
added that “The House Bunny” was the only comedy for this demographic for the
summer.
Universal’s “Death Race,” an up-date of 1975’s classic
action movie “Death Race 2000,” opened at No.3, with $12.3 million. The film
features Jason Statham as a convict who races dangerously for his freedom and
involves a lot of gratuitous violence, gruesome deaths and explosions, which
are very rarely interrupted by the actors’ lines.
The week’s other new releases had a very weak opening.
“The Longshots,” the directorial debut of Fred Durst, was a
flop at the box office, earning $4.3 million, which was about $2 million below
expectations.
But the weekend’s biggest loser was Rainn Wilson’s comedy,
“The Rocker,” which landed on the 12 place, managing to gross only $2.8
million. That is, about $6 million less than it was predicted.
“The Dark Knight” fell from last week’s No.2 spot to No.4,
with $10.3 million. Collecting more than $489 million in six weeks of domestic
ticket sales, it became the second-highest grossing domestic film ever behind
“Titanic.”
The fifth spot was occupied by “Star Wars: The Clone Wars,”
which earned $5.7 million, and the sixth one by the stoner comedy “Pineapple
Express,” which grossed $5.6 million in its third week.
“Mirrors,” from News Corp.'s 20th-Century Fox, was on the
seventh spot with $4.9 million and “Mamma Mia!” on the ninth, with $4.3
million.
