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Kim Hollis: Tropic Thunder ended The Dark Knight's reign at #1 by earning $25.8 million in three days and $36.8 million in five days. Should Paramount/DreamWorks be pleased with this result?

Max Braden: I guess summer is over. I'd have expected twice that if it had been an early July release, and this was a big budget movie. It's almost better to be able to say they beat Pineapple Express than Batman.

Shane Jenkins: I'm with Max on this. Its original release date was July 11th, and I think being punted back a month might have halved its gross. I also suspect that Ben Stiller does not have a Michael Phelps poster hanging on his wall.

Reagen Sulewski: I doubt that sales of rope are up or anything, but it's a fairly mediocre result for a film that had starpower up the yin yang and one of the summer's hottest figures in a resurgent Robert Downey Jr. At the same time, Ben Stiller has been very hit or miss and a lot of his fame has come from films that showed impressive legs after the fact. So this may just be par for the course.

David Mumpower: I don't believe Paramount can or should be pleased with this result. They clearly pushed this title back in order to give it breathing room away from The Dark Knight while also hoping to coast off the new-found popularity of Robert Downey Jr. The end result is an opening on a par with Along Came Polly for a title that also features Kung Fu Panda and Iron Man. it should have done better. Period.





Jamie Ruccio: I don't think they should be disappointed. A quick glance at the opening box office history of the featured stars in it show that none of them have opened a film much beyond the $30 million mark that wasn't animated or an event film with some other larger draw. I think it performed exactly as marketed and for the given weekend. Although, if they did push it back because they were afraid that it was going to get run over by Dark Knight, they clearly didn't have confidence in the product nor heard of counter programming. I think there may have been some buzz amongst the movie Internet crowd...ahem...but that it didn't translate into a grand slam opening that some of us were expecting.

David Mumpower: Jamie, my counter to that is Tropic Thunder stars the lead actors in the #2 film of 2006 as well as the #2 and #6 movies of 2008. If you think the combination of that trio should lead to an opening of only $26 million, Dave Mason pegged it when he said we just disagree.

Brandon Scott: It would've opened much higher without the Olympics, since it played to a slightly older crowd and we were all paying attention to Michael Phelps and Team USA hoops. We were more interested in seeing records broken in the Olympics than at the box office, but with generally positive reviews, this should have a decent run and still has a shot at $100 million anyway. All of that being said, of course it's a bit of a letdown....CUT!

Daron Aldridge: Given the reported $90 million budget, they probably aren't overjoyed but if this can demonstrate decent legs, then it should make them happy in the end.

Jason Lee: Honestly, I think this should come at the lower ends of their expectations. This type of comedy has typically flourished in the month of August. Tropic Thunder is now the game show equivalent to "that guy who finally beat Ken Jennings on Jeopardy."

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