If the movie studios had been banking on the first post-Labor Day weekend bringing in some profits, and let’s hope that they weren’t, they would have been thoroughly upset. It appears that, with the start of the football season, and maybe some less than sunny weather, Americans were staying home in droves this weekend.

The only newcomer to the scene this week was Nicolas Cage‘s Bangkok Dangerous, which only manage to scrape in over the top of Tropic Thunder by $300,000, taking a total of $7.8 million.

Industry observers had expected the Lionsgate movie to acquire at least $10 million on its opening debut, though poor ratings (like RT 3.5 out of 10) probably helped to keep its takings down.

As mentioned, Tropic Thunder managed to take the second spot, over The House Bunny which managed $5.9 million, and The Dark Knight, still in the top 5 with $5.7 million. Rounding out the top 10 included Babylon A.D. at 6 and Disaster Movie, which despite my best hopes, still manages to hold the 8th position.

And despite all of the new releases and low takings, much of industry speculation still hovers over TDK. Currently taking in $512 million domestically, it sits nearly $90 million from taking the number one all-time grossing film spot from Titanic. But some industry experts are predicting that it’s going to have to settle for second spot, and given the low takings this weekend, which I believe are going to continue through Fall, it does seem unlikely that TDK will be able to overcome that last few million.

Our editors here at Geeks of Doom asked us recently to look through the upcoming movies, and choose what we wanted to review. Not only were there only two movies which I feel any interest towards, the rest of the list was either unappealing or simply unheard of. And with Harry Potter pushed back to mid-09, that leaves me personally with just Quantum of Solace and Max Payne to look forward to.

As always, all statistics are care of Box Office Mojo.