DreamWorks' big-budget comedy "Tropic Thunder" topped the box office in North America this weekend, knocking Warner Bros.' latest Batman film out of the number one spot after it reigned in theaters for more than one month.

"Tropic Thunder," which stars Hollywood big names Ben Stiller, Robert Downey Jr., Jack Black and Tom Cruise, opened to rave reviews and took in 26 million dollar over the three-day period, according to box office tracking firm Media By Numbers Sunday.

The film took in about 37 millions since its Wednesday release in U.S. and Canadian theaters as it continued the summer trend of opening new films in the middle of the week.

Meanwhile, "The Dark Knight" slipped to second with 16.8 million dollars over the weekend. As predicted, the sixth installment of the Batman franchise surpassed the original "Star Wars" Saturday to become the second-highest gross film ever in North America, with 471.5 million dollars over five weeks.

The 1997 "Titanic" remains the highest-grossing movie of all time in North America, with a take of nearly 601 million dollars. It is also No. 1 globally with a worldwide gross of 1.84 billion dollars.

An animated George Lucas production called "Star Wars: The Clone Wars" opened in third place this weekend with some 15.5 million dollars. The film, also released by Warner Bros., is a prequel to the original movies and timed to launch a new Cartoon Network series.

"Mirrors," a 20th Century Fox horror tale about a security guard whose family is terrorized by spirits, opened at No. 4 with 11.1 million dollars over the weekend, while last week's No. 2 film "Pineapple Express" slipped to No. 5 with 10 million dollars.

Hollywood appears to be matching last year's record ticket sales pace, as the movie industry has taken in about 6.3 billion dollars so far this year, almost same as that in the same period last year.

(Xinhua News Agency August 18, 2008)