Tropic Thunder Holds Strong Over Labor Day Weekend

Despite competition from four new wide releases over the long holiday weekend, Ben Stiller’s Tropic Thunder managed to stay on top of the box office for its third straight weekend in a row, earning $14.3 million.

The new sci-fi clunker Babylon A.D., starring Vin Diesel, held the number two spot with a mediocre $12 million, putting it just ahead of The Dark Knight’s seventh weekend total of $11 million. The Dark Knight now becomes only the second movie in history to pass $500 million at the U.S. box office, doing so in just about half the time it took Titanic to reach that historic mark.

Rounding out the top five were the Anna Faris comedy The House Bunny with $10.2 million and the new Don Cheadle espionage thriller Traitor, which opened in fifth place with $10 million.

Next weekend, Ben Stiller and Batman face competition from Nicolas Cage in Bangkok Dangerous. Will an actor and the caped crusader be able to defeat Dangerous Cage? Find out in next week’s Top of the Box Office report.