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Tropic Thunder storms No1

A lightening strike at the US box office

There was good news and bad news for The Dark Knight this weekend.

On the good news front, it's taken $471m in the US alone, making it the second-highest grossing film in US history and leapfrogging Star Wars.

Sure, that's not adjusting for inflation – The Dark Knight needs around another $800m to take that record – but given that Star Wars has had 31 years and The Dark Knight has had 30 days, the Bat has a pretty good chance to get to those levels.

And the film should also overtake the current box office leader, Titanic, which grossed $601m domestically. Or about $900m after adjusting for inflation.

The bad news though? The Dark Knight is no longer the top of the weekly chart. That honour has gone to Tropic Thunder, the hilarious film-about-a-Vietnam-film starring Ben Stiller, Jack Black, Steve Coogan and Robert Downey Jr. (as a 'black' actor), plus Tom Cruise in an unbelievable, unrecognisable cameo.

That shrugged off the controversy tag – a running gag about 'retards' and Downey Jr's make-up – to take $37m.

'We're thrilled with the opening, and we're expecting it to play great over the next few weeks with the great reactions to the film,' said DreamWorks spokesman Chip Sullivan.

In comparison, The Dark Knight slipped to second, but still took $16.8 million and Star Wars: The Clone Wars took $15.5 million to secure third place.

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