Movies

LOS ANGELES – The action comedy Tropic Thunder weathered a rush of new movies to remain No. 1 for a second straight weekend with $16.1 million in ticket sales, according to studio estimates Sunday.

The Paramount-Dream Works release – starring Ben Stiller, Robert Downey Jr. and Jack Black as actors caught up in real battle while shooting a war movie – raised its 12-day total to $65.7 million.

Tropic Thunder came in just ahead of Sony's campus comedy The House Bunny, which debuted in second place with $15.1 million. The House Bunny stars Anna Faris as an ostracized Playboy bunny who becomes den mother to a sorority of campus misfits.

Universal's Death Race – an update of 1975's Death Race 2000, with Jason Statham starring as a driver in a kill-or-be-killed auto race of the future – opened at No. 3 with $12.3 million.

The weekend's other new wide releases, Ice Cube's sports drama The Longshots and Rainn Wilson's music comedy The Rocker, opened weakly.

After a run of blockbuster weekends, late summer has proven its usual dumping ground for modest movies as audiences eased into back-to-school mode.

That opened the door for Tropic Thunder to repeat as the weekend's leader.

"There isn't that divide where there's a couple of huge movies coming every week," said DreamWorks spokesman Chip Sullivan.

Summer's biggest hit, The Dark Knight, continued its climb up the box-office charts, placing fourth with $10.3 million.

The Warner Bros. Batman sequel has taken in $489.2 million on its way to becoming the second film ever to top $500 million, after Titanic ($600.8 million).

Here are the estimated weekend totals for the top 10 films.