‘Butterfly’ makes a big flap

Ashton Kutcher punked the critics as his time-travel thriller “The Butterfly Effect” snared the top spot at the weekend box office.

The film hauled in $17.1 million while the Ben Stiller romantic comedy “Along Came Polly” slipped from first to second place with $16.6 million, according to studio estimates Sunday.

“The Butterfly Effect” stars Kutcher as a college student haunted by repressed childhood memories who travels back in time to inhabit the body of his younger self and undo traumatic events.

Critics derided the film, but “there was a great curiosity to see how” the 25-year-old Kutcher, star of “That ‘70’s Show” and MTV’s prank reality show “Punk’d,” would “handle a mature role,” said David Tuckerman, head of distribution for New Line, which released “The Butterfly Effect.”

The film attracted nearly as many men as women, despite Kutcher’s popularity among young female viewers, Tuckerman added.

Also debuting this weekend was “Win a Date With Tad Hamilton!” which came in third with $7.5 million. The romantic comedy follows Kate Bosworth as a naive West Virginia girl who wins a date with a movie hunk. It also features Josh Duhamel and Topher Grace, another “That ‘70s Show” cast member.

The film’s gross may have been hindered by “Along Came Polly,” which likely fleeced weekend viewers looking for romantic comedies.

Warner Bros. was anticipating increased interest for Clint Eastwood’s “Mystic River” following the Golden Globes and likely Oscar nominations for best picture and best director, and added nearly 1,200 theaters in the movie’s 16th weekend, boosting it back into the top 10 with $3.1 million for the weekend and bringing its total to $58.5 million.

Among movies in limited release, IFC Films’ documentary about mountain climbing in the Andes, “Touching the Void,” opened in five theaters with $93,300 and a healthy $18,660 per theater, according to figures posted on Boxofficemojo.com.

“The Fog of War,” Errol Morris’ documentary about Robert McNamara’s role as Defense secretary during the Vietnam War, showed continued strength in its sixth weekend with $9,823 per theater in 17 locations.

Newmarket Films added 109 theaters for “Monster,” whose star, Charlize Theron, has a good chance at an Oscar nomination. Now in 330 locations, the film about Florida serial killer Aileen Wuornos grossed $2 million over the weekend, averaging a solid $6,066 per theater and bringing its five-weekend total to just under $6 million, according to data on Boxofficemojo.com.

Lions Gate Films expanded “Girl With a Pearl Earring” by 21 venues to 72, and the film posted a solid per-theater average of $7,222. The film has grossed $2.6 million.

The Tim Burton storytelling fantasy “Big Fish” took in $7.3 million to finish at No. 4. “The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King” fell one place to fifth with $6.85 million to bring its total domestic gross to more than $337 million.

Compiled from Times staff and wire service reports.