Thunder stays top at box office

Ben Stiller comedy Tropic Thunder has clung to the top of the North American box office chart for a third week.

The action spoof, which also stars Jack Black and Robert Downey Jr, took an estimated $11.5m (£6.4m).

Vin Diesel's sci-fi thriller Babylon A.D entered the chart at number two, taking $9.7m (£5.4m) over the weekend.

Meanwhile, The Dark Knight is only the second film in US history to reach the $500m (£278m) mark. Titanic surpassed the landmark figure in 1997.

NORTH AMERICAN BOX OFFICE

• 1. Tropic Thunder ($11.5m)
• 2. Babylon A.D ($9.7m)
• 3. The Dark Knight ($8.8m)
• 4. The House Bunny ($8.3m)
• 5. Traitor ($7.9m)
• 6. Death Race ($6.2m)
• 7. Disaster Movie ($6.2m)
• 8. Mamma Mia ($4.4m)
• 9. Pineapple Express ($3.5m)
• 10. Vicky Cristina Barcelona ($3m)

Weekend ticket sales as a whole were sluggish - despite five new films opening, none of them managed to break the $10m (£5.5m) mark, with Tropic Thunder the only film to do so.

"It was an underwhelming end to a phenomenal summer," said Paul Dergarabedian, head of box office tracking service Media By Numbers.

With The Dark Knight rising back up the chart at number three, comedy The House Bunny fell two places to number four with $8.3m (£4.6m).

International terrorism drama Traitor, starring Don Cheadle as a former US Special Operations officer, was the second highest new entry at number five.

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