The controversial Ben Stiller comedy Tropic Thunder sped over the finishing line in first place at the US box office at the weekend, easily beating off the challenge of newcomer Death Race with a haul of $16.1m in its second week.
The Jason Statham-headed action film about a prison where inmates compete in a brutal race for their freedom in souped up vehicles had been expected to take the top slot, but it could manage only third place on debut with a disappointing $12.3m.
Another new arrival, comedy The House Bunny, took second place with a better-than-expected $15.1m. It stars Anna Faris as a Playboy bunny kicked out of Hugh Hefner's pad, who moves into a sorority house where the clueless tenants are also about to face eviction.
Batman sequel The Dark Knight continued to rack up the dollars in fourth spot with another $10.3m in its sixth week of release. It may just climb over the $500m mark at the US box office next weekend, having secured a haul of $489.2m so far.
The top five was rounded out by the previously released animated feature Star Wars: The Clone Wars, which took just $5.7m in its second week, sliding 61% from its opening $14.6m haul. That enormous drop off suggests extremely poor word of mouth for the latest film in George Lucas's space opera series.
Elsewhere on the chart the only other new film to crack the top 10 was the Ice Cube family comedy The Longshots, about a teenage girl who becomes the quarterback for the local American football team. It took $4.3m in eighth spot. Poorly reviewed comedy The Rocker, starring The US Office's Rainn Wilson as a former rock star who gets a second chance with his nephew's garage band, finished outside the top 10 with just $2.8m from its opening weekend.
Disabled groups picketed cinemas with leaflets and protest signs over Tropic Thunder's opening weekend a week ago, but their actions seem to have had little effect on cinemagoers. The main source of ire was a scene in the film in which Robert Downey Jr's character berates a fellow actor, played by Ben Stiller, for going "full retard" in his film Simple Jack.
