In a list compiled prior to the summer's film releases, "Entertainment Weekly" predicted that the film would be the tenth highest-grossing film of the summer at the American box office with $142.6 million. "Tropic Thunder" opened in 3,319 theaters and, for its first five days of American and Canadian release, earned $36,845,588. The film placed first in the weekend's box office with $25,812,796, surpassing "" and "Mirrors", which debuted the same weekend. Reacting to the film's opening receipts, DreamWorks spokesman Chip Sullivan stated "We're thrilled, quite frankly. It played out exactly how we hoped." In foreign markets for the film's opening weekend, it was released in 418 Russian and 19 United Arab Emirates locations earning $2.2 million and $319,000, respectively. The film maintained its number one position at the American and Canadian box office for the following two weekends, making it the second film in 2008 (after "The Dark Knight") to hold the number-one position for more than two consecutive weekends. The film's widest release was in 3,473 theaters, placing it in the top 25 widest releases in the U.S. for 2008. For 2008, the film was the fifth-highest-grossing domestic R-rated film. The film's U.S. and Canada gross of over $110 million made "Tropic Thunder" Stiller's most successful film as a director. The film has had gross receipts of $110,515,313 in the U.S. and Canada and $77,557,336 in international markets for a total of $188,072,649 worldwide. In October 2008, Paramount chose to put end-of-year award push funds behind "Tropic Thunder", and began advertising for Downey to receive a nomination by the Academy Awards for Best Supporting Actor. In a November 2008 issue by "Entertainment Weekly", Downey's film role was considered one of the three contenders for Best Supporting Actor. As a way of extending the film-within-a-film "universe" into real life, there have also been at least two online "For Your Consideration" ads touting Downey's character, Kirk Lazarus, for Best Supporting Actor; one of these contains "scenes" from "Satan's Alley" that were not in the trailer as released in theaters. At least one of the ads was produced by Paramount Pictures and intended for early For Your Consideration awareness for Downey's role.