Bangkok film boxes its way to top

Nicolas Cage stars as assassin Joe in Bangkok Dangerous

Action thriller Bangkok Dangerous has hit the top of the North American box office in its opening weekend.

The film, starring Nicolas Cage, took $7.8m (�4.4m).

It knocked Ben Stiller comedy Tropic Thunder, with $7.5m (�4.2m), into second place, with comedy The House Bunny third with $5.9m (�3.3m).

Box office tracking service Media By Numbers said weekend box office takings - estimated at $66m (�37.3m) - were the lowest for seven years.

Poor business has been blamed on a traditional September slowdown coupled with the economy and severe weather hitting parts of the US in recent weeks.

NORTH AMERICAN BOX OFFICE 1. Bangkok Dangerous ($7.8m) 2. Tropic Thunder ($7.5m) 3. The House Bunny ($5.9m) 4. The Dark Knight ($5.7m) 5. Traitor ($4.7m) 6. Babylon A.D. ($4m) 7. Death Race ($3.6m) 8. Disaster Movie ($3.3m) 9. Mamma Mia ($2.7m) 10. Pineapple Express ($2.4m) Source: Media By Numbers

Batman film The Dark Knight dropped a place to fourth in the chart with $5.7m (�3.2m).

And international terrorism drama Traitor, starring Don Cheadle, stayed at number five.

This weekend was also the seventh in a row that box office takings have been down on the same time last year.

"We don't want that to turn into 10 weeks or more because that's not good for the health of the industry," Media By Numbers head Paul Dergarabedian said.

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