Vanity Fair might have thought that some pictures of Brad Pitt in his boxers wearing tube socks trumped Borat’s green banana hammock, but America doesn’t agree. Borat’s Cultural Learnings landed the top spot at the box office this weekend with a $26.4 million take. The movie also has an astonishing 96% critics aggregate rating on Rotten Tomatoes. It’s said to be hilarious, and a good time for everyone:

“Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan,” 20th Century Fox’s big-screen incarnation of Cohen’s Kazakh journalist from “Da Ali G Show,” took in $26.4 million over opening weekend, according to studio estimates Sunday.

“This picture was playing to full houses,” said Bruce Snyder, head of distribution at 20th Century Fox. “The planets aligned, the moons aligned, the stars aligned, and everything came together perfectly for us on this weekend.”

Box-office analysts had expected Disney’s “The Santa Clause 3: The Escape Clause,” with Tim Allen returning as St. Nicholas, to win the weekend. The movie opened at No. 2 with $20 million, followed by the Paramount-DreamWorks animated comedy “Flushed Away” in third place with $19.1 million.

With great Internet buzz and a built-in following from “Da Ali G Show,” “Borat” succeeded where another cyber-sensation, “Snakes on a Plane,” failed. “Snakes on a Plane” opened last summer to modest crowds after months of Internet hoopla.

The raucous, raunchy “Borat” follows the adventures of British comedian Cohen’s TV journalist from Kazakhstan in a blend of fiction and improvised comic encounters as he travels the United States, meets and mocks Americans and reports back to his home country on his findings.

“It is what you go to the theater for,” said Hutch Parker, the studio’s head of production. “You get that infectious, outrageous, interactive experience. There are people yelling at the screen, there are cheers. It literally plays like a Rolling Stones concert.“

Not all Americans are happy with Borat’s goofy antics. A southern TV producer who unwittingly interviewed Borat, making for a hilarious segment of the film, has been fired for falling prey to his scam. Sacha Baron Cohen, whose alter egos are the Kazakstani reporter Borat, the British chav Ali G, and the gay Austrian fashion show presenter Brüno, uses a front organization and a secretary to book his interviews. Once he’s in there, it’s kind of hard to kick him out.

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