‘The Dark Knight’ relents, settles for No. 2
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What does it take to bring down Batman?
Well, you need the tag-team of Iron Man, Kung Fu Panda, Ethan Hunt and Zoolander. Here’s the top of the AP story on the Hollywood weekend grosses, which have ‘The Dark Knight’ finding out what second-place feels like for the first time:
It took four of Hollywood’s biggest stars to take down Batman.The DreamWorks- Paramount comedy ‘ Tropic Thunder’ -- with Ben Stiller, Robert Downey Jr., Jack Black and Tom Cruise -- debuted at No. 1 with $26 million, bumping ‘The Dark Knight’ to second place after four weekends on top, according to studio estimates Sunday.The Warner Bros. Batman flick pulled in $16.8 million to raise its total to $471.5 million. ‘The Dark Knight’ passed the original ‘ Star Wars’ ($461 million) and now stands as No. 2 on the all-time domestic charts, behind only ‘Titanic’ ($600.8 million).
Warner Bros. also seized the No. 3 spot with the first animated ‘Star Wars’ theatrical release, director Dave Filoni’s ‘Star Wars: The Clone Wars,’ which was not the droid you were looking for if you happened to be a fan older than 10. The film did not really light it up. More from the AP on that:
The Dark Knight’ managed to fend off another ‘Star Wars’ movie this weekend. The animated tale ‘Star Wars: The Clone Wars,’ also released by Warner Bros., opened at No. 3 with $15.5 million.Families made up two-thirds of the audience for ‘Clone Wars,’ Fellman said. ‘Star Wars’ creator George Lucas, who has an executive producer credit on ‘Clone Wars,’ intended the movie as an introduction to his ‘Clone Wars’ TV show debuting this fall on the Cartoon Network.’It was targeted to a specific audience for specific reasons,’ Fellman said. ‘We accomplished that mission, and it will continue in another medium.’
Yeah, medium sounds about right, but this is a franchise that is more accustomed to wearing extra-large sizes at the box office. So when will Warner Bros. have the No. 1 movie in the country again? That’s easy, it’ll be in November when they release one of the year’s most anticipated films, ‘Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.’ Oops. Wait, scratch that. My bad...
-- Geoff Boucher
‘The Dark Knight’ photo courtesy of Warner Bros.