Movies

Stop me if you've heard this one: The Dark Knight collected $26 million last weekend to finish first, this time holding off the stoner comedy Pineapple Express by $3 million. Along the way, it advanced to the No. 3 spot on the all-time domestic box-office chart with $441.6 million, about $20 million short of second-place Star Wars. (Titanic is tops at $600.8 million.)

Dark Knight's weekend victory marked its fourth consecutive week atop the charts, a truly rare feat. The last time a movie had that kind of staying power was late 2003-early 2004, when The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King took up residence at the top. It was toppled the next week by Along Came Polly, starring Ben Stiller, who may also play the spoiler for Batman.

Hell Ride opened pretty small: just 82 screens. That was probably a wise choice, as not many people attended even those showings. Still, you would think that a movie with some name talent (Dennis Hopper, Michael Madsen, David Carradine) could manage more than $100,164. They probably spent that much on gas for the motorcycles in the movie.

Swami should've known that a couple of potheads couldn't take down Batman.

Prediction: Pineapple Express earns $27 million and the No. 1 spot.

Result: It earned $41 million including Wednesday and Thursday, but this prediction was only for the weekend.

Prediction: The Dark Knight is finally unseated, earning $21 million.

Result: About $5 million off on the total.

Tropic Thunder is the perfect foil for The Dark Knight. It's as silly as Knight is brooding, and after all this darkness, audiences could probably use a little pick-me-up.

Prediction: Tropic Thunder earns $45 million in its first five days.

Is it possible that Dark Knight could drop not one but two spots this weekend? No doubt the fanboys have been propping it up, but on Friday another of their favorites returns to big screens.

Prediction: Star Wars: The Clone Wars earns $21 million and the No. 2 spot.

Stephen Becker

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