As widely expected, Tropic Thunder took the top spot at the box office this weekend, taking in $26 million to Dark Knight‘s $16.8 – its first weekend at number two.

The Warner Bros. Batman flick pulled in $16.8 million to raise its total to $471.5 million. "The Dark Knight" passed the original "Star Wars" ($461 million) and now stands as No. 2 on the all-time domestic charts, behind only "Titanic" ($600.8 million).  Warner Bros. expects "The Dark Knight" to top out at about $530 million domestically, said Dan Fellman, the studio’s head of distribution.

Tropic Thunder‘s opening was below the studio’s mid-30s predictions, but it still opened slightly stronger than Pineapple Express last week.  Meanwhile, sadly, a few people were stupid enough to see George Lucas’ latest butt baby, which took third with $15 million.  

Families made up two-thirds of the audience for "Clone Wars," Fellman said. "Star Wars" creator George Lucas, who has an executive producer credit on "Clone Wars," intended the movie as an introduction to his "Clone Wars" TV show debuting this fall on the Cartoon Network.  "It was targeted to a specific audience for specific reasons," Fellman said.

That specific audience being people who aren’t too intelligent or picky and those specific reasons being that George Lucas is full of bad ideas and surrounded by people who won’t tell him so.  A gay Hutt?  That’s brilliant, George.  Can I ride the go karts again?

1. "Tropic Thunder," $26 million.

2. "The Dark Knight," $16.8 million.

3. "Star Wars: The Clone Wars," $15.5 million.

4. "Mirrors," $11.1 million.

5. "Pineapple Express," $10 million.

6. "The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor," $8.6 million.

7. "Mamma Mia!", $6.5 million.

8. "The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2," $5.9 million.

9. "Step Brothers," $5 million.

10. "Vicky Cristina Barcelona," $3.7 million.

[Source]