Will Ferrell steers his way to top spot; Party Animals and Johnny Depp draft to second and third position.

Exceeding the predicted expectations and becoming the second highest grossing premier for a non sequel comedy, Talladega Nights: The Legend of Ricky Bobby cruised to the top of the box office this weekend. The $47 million pulled in by Ferrell and crew landed them in the winners circle for their debut and became the second highest grossing new comedy in history, trailing the $68 million raked in by Jim Carrey and Bruce Almighty.

The dollar figure for Talladega Nights far exceeded the estimates of $30 million experts had projected. The Columbia Pictures film was made for $72 million and has already reached half of its production costs. With an impressive lineup of hits, Columbia expects to reach the billion dollar mark in domestic dollars later this week. It would be the fifth year in a row for Columbia’s parent company, Sony, to reach that mark.

With cameo appearances by NASCAR stars Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Darrell Walltrip Talladega Nights was able to lap Paramount’s debut, Barnyard: The Original Party Animals which brought in $16 million. The animated feature exceeded expectations as well after fears of a soft weekend. Animated films have taken a hit this summer with disappointing results for Monster House and The Ant Bully.

Johnny Depp and the crew of Pirates seem reluctant to share the box office booty with new films. The Disney production brought in another $11 million to push its overall domestic haul to $380 million in five weeks.

It was a tough weekend for the cops in the sunshine state as Miami Vice relinquished its top spot and fell to number four in the box office rankings. The $9.7 million haul represents a 62% drop from Colin Farrell and Jamie Foxx’s film opening last weekend.

The low budget horror flick The Descent scared up $8.8 million in revenue from ticket buyers interested in a story about female spelunkers.

Estimated domestic box office numbers for August 4-6

1. "Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby," $47 million.
2. "Barnyard: The Original Party Animals," $16 million.
3. "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest," $11 million.
4. "Miami Vice," $9.7 million.
5. "The Descent," $8.8 million.
6. "John Tucker Must Die," $6.05 million.
7. "Monster House," $6 million.
8. "The Ant Bully," $3.9 million.
9. "The Night Listener," $3.6 million.
10. "You, Me and Dupree," $3.6 million