Ben Stiller’s “Tropic Thunder,” a satire of the Hollywood-ian industry, dethroned the 4-week reign of “The Dark Knight.” The movie industry spoof grossed an estimated $26 in ticket sales this weekend, outstripping the performance of the “The Dark Knight,” which totalized $16.8 million at this weekend box office.

DreamWorks’ “Tropic Thunder” is a movie in a movie, a comedy about Hollywood actors going at great lengths in order to succeed. It focuses on three prima donna-like characters starring in a war drama, the trio being interpreted by Ben Stiller (who also co-wrote, directed and produced the movie), Robert Downey Jr. and Jack Black.

The achievement of the movie is even more outstanding, given the fact that there have been plans to boycott it. Groups representing the intellectually disabled protested at the extensive use of the prohibited “R-word,” claiming that the production is a mean way of humiliating the before-mentioned category. Stiller’s camp highlighted that the production is a satire, and the use of the word “retard” (and several colorful synonyms) does not regard anyone else but the Hollywood prima donnas.

On the other hand, “The Dark Knight” has its own even more impressive performance. The Batman sequel rose to the second spot of the domestic box office, surpassing “Star Wars,” with a total of $471.5 million. The movie featured the late Heath Ledger playing the incredibly ruthless villain, the Joker, a difficult role which he played impeccably. The No. 1 remains the 1997’s “Titanic,” with a total of $600.8 million. The ranking does not consider the effects of inflation within the years. The old No. 2 was the News Corp.’s 20 th Century Fox Studio “Star Wars.” The movie has earned $471.5 million since its 1977 launch. “The Dark Knight” surpassed the former No. 2 record in only one month.

On the third spot of this weekend’s box office we find Warner’s “Star Wars: The Clone Wars.” The animated picture earned $15.5 million. 20^th Century Fox’s thriller “Mirrors” starring “24’s” Kiefer Sutherland landed on the forth spot, with $11.1 million, followed by Sony Pictures’ drugs comedy “Pineapple Express,” which earned $10 million this weekend.

Woody Allen’s newcomer comedy “Vicky Cristina Barcelona” totalized only $3,7 million, ranked on the 10^th position. The Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc. and Weinstein Co. production featured a love quartet including Scarlett Johansson, Penelope Cruz, Rebecca Hall and Javier Bardem in the exquisite setting of Barcelona.

The 12^th position went to the “Fly Me to the Moon” animation, which grossed a mere $2 million.