Tropic Thunder Continues to Rumble

By Sarah Sluis

With no significant new releases to challenge its action-comedy dominance, the big news today was Tropic Thunder's ability to hold on to the top spot for the third week running, with just an 11% drop in revenue.

Among new releases, Babylon A.D. managed to come in second with a $14.3 million take, despite abysmal reviews, including a 4% rating on critical aggregator RottenTomatoes. Traitor, the other action release, picked up $10 million at #5.

Of the three teen-oriented pictures, only one, Disaster Movie (#7), made the top ten, with College and Hamlet 2 settling in at spots #15 and #17. With most teens and college students already back on campus or gearing up for the start of the school year, low teen turnout comes as no surprise.

Mamma Mia! was able to boost its take slightly (2% over the weekend) by adding a sing-along to 299 of the 1,968 theatres playing the Meryl Streep musical. Last year this approach was tried by competing studio New Line with Hairspray. This tactic has long been used on the small screen with Disney original movies, including the much-hyped High School Musical series.

Woody Allen's Vicky Christina Barcelona also increased its take over Labor Day, and looks to be a financial success on par with Scoop. Hamlet 2 opened in wide release over the weekend, increasing its take, but with a per-screen average of only $1k, it will likely cut down on the number of theatres in release. With only one wide release this Friday, Nicolas Cage thriller Bangkok Dangerous, most of these films will remain in the top ten through next week.