LOS ANGELES, Sept. 7 (Xinhua) -- Nicholas Cage's latest film "Bangkok Dangerous" debuted this weekend atop the box office in North America with some 7.8 million dollars, the lowest opening for a No. 1 movie in five years, preliminary figures showed Sunday.

     "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 7.5 million dollars 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 6.7 dollars.

    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 U.S. and Canada were estimated at 64 million dollars, down as much as 17 percent from the same period last year, making Hollywood's lowest weekend gross in eight years.