Nicholas Cage's latest film "Bangkok Dangerous" debuted this weekend atop
the box office in North America with some US$7.8 million, the lowest opening for
a No. 1 movie in five years, preliminary figures showed yesterday.
"Bangkok Dangerous," a remake by filmmakers Oxide and Danny Pang brothers of
their 1999 Thai hit, opened to tepid reviews but managed to unseat DreamWorks'
action-comedy "Tropic Thunder," which took in US$7.5 million after being No. 1
for three weeks.
Cage, an Academy Award-winning actor, produced the thriller himself. The film
about a ruthless assassin who was assigned to do killings in the Thai capital
but finally fell in love with a local woman was the only one film to open widely
this weekend.
Last time a movie debuting at the top of box office with a lower opening
gross was in 2003, when comedy "Dickie Roberts: Former Child Star" opened with
US$6.7.
The first weekend after Labor Day is usually sluggish for Hollywood, as the
lucrative summer season has ended, students are back to school and studios begin
to release under performing movies. But this fall the situation seems more
dreary after a flamboyant record-setting summer.
Total ticket sales this weekend in US and Canada were estimated at US$64
million, down as much as 17 percent from the same period last year, making
Hollywood's lowest weekend gross in eight years.
