Neither Death Race, nor House Bunny were able to knock off
Ben Stiller’s “Tropic Thunder” from the first position in the weekend box
office.
Earning $16,100,000 in the past three days, “Tropic Thunder”
maintained its position for the second week in a row, but the total gross of
the movie is still under its budget.
In 14 days, “Tropic Thunder” earned a total of $65,668,000,
while its budget was $92 million.
Directed by Ben Stiller, “Tropic Thunder” is a comedy
situated on the edge, as it makes fun of everything: Vietnam veterans, drug addicts who
are recovering, Russell Crowe, those who are overweight and the list can go on.
The action revolves around a group of self absorbed, pampered actors who are
taken into the jungle to lose their VIP behavior. Even if the jungle is real
and they get involved in all sorts of dangerous situations, they keep it cool,
thinking it’s all a movie.
Ben Stiller plays action star Tugg Speedman, Robert Downey
Jr. is Kirk Lazarus and Jack Black is Jeff Portnoy star of the movie “The
Fatties: Fart II,” making fun of the Klumps with Eddie Murphy. All these actors
are trying to make “Tropic Thunder,” a Vietnam War movie based on a book written
by Sgt. Four Leaf Tayback (Nick Nolte), but they are too vain and their egos are
too big to let them work.
Last week, “Tropic Thunder” ended the reign of “The Dark
Knight”, which during this weekend slipped to the fourth position, earning only
$10,305,000. The total gross of “The Dark Knight” has reached $489,179,000.
Quite surprisingly, Anna
Faris’ “House Bunny” opened on the second place by earning $15,100,000 and
surpassing “Death Race”
“House Bunny” focuses on Shelley Darlingson (Anna Faris), a
former Playboy Bunny exiled from the lush and hush-hush Playboy mansion. After
celebrating her 27th anniversary, she gets kicked out in the mundane world, with
no place to go and nothing to do. Apparently, 27 years are the equivalent of 59
bunny years. Therefore, she was too old for the job.
Based on on the 1975’s “Death Car 2000,”, “Death Race
starring Jason Statham ranked third with $12,293,000.
Set in the near future, the flick presents a US struck by
financial collapse and chaos. The protagonist, Jensen Ames (Jason Statham) is a
former professional driver who is wrongfully accused of murdering his beloved
wife. He receives a life sentence to serve at the Terminal Island Penitentiary.
But the chaotic status quo of the country altered the order we are all
accustomed.
Penitentiaries are taken over by private corporations. This
is also the case of the jail where Ames
is framed, the prison being the location of the title death race, a
pay-per-view project that mobilizes all the wrongdoers in the prison to race in
cars featuring guns, rockets or even napalm.
“Star Wars: The Clone Wars” slipped from third to fifth
position with $5,660,000, closely followed by “Pineapple Express” which earned $5,600,000.
Fox’s horror movie “Mirrors” felt three place, from fourth to seventh.
“The Longshots”, the directorial debut of Fred Durst, the
vocalist of Limp Bizkit, proved to be a flop at box office, earning only the
eight spot and $4,304,000.
The Top 10 was rounded up by “Mamma Mia!” with $4,303,000 and
“The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor”, which earned $4,069,000.
