Gay <i>Star Trek</I> spoof tops German box office charts (13313)

German sci-fi spoof (T)Raumschiff Surprise--Periode 1 continued its record-breaking run at the German box office, selling more than 5 million tickets in its first 12 days of release, distributor Constantin Film said Wednesday. Surprise becomes the fastest film to cross the 5 million-ticket mark this year in Germany and ranks third overall in the country. Only the second and third installments of The Lord of the Rings trilogy managed to cross the benchmark faster. With almost $36 million in the till, Surprise is already the second-most-successful release in Germany this year, behind Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, which took in $46.3 million over its entire run. A gay-themed parody of science-fiction films from the Star Trek and Star Wars series through The Fifth Element and French time-travel comedy Les Visiteurs, Surprise is expected to face some tough competition in Germany this weekend as it goes head-to-head with Will Smith in I, Robot.