Box Office: Liam Neeson's 'Taken 3' Zooms to No. 1 With Stellar $40.4M Debut
Liam Neeson in Taken 3
By Pamela McClintock
Closing out the franchise in style, Liam Neeson’s Taken 3 earned $40.4 million from 3,594 theaters in its North American debut, topping the box office and scoring the second-best January opening of all time, not accounting for inflation.
The $48 million action film, produced by Luc Besson’s EuropaCorp and distributed by Fox, narrowly bested the $40.1 million earned by Cloverfield in 2008. Last year’s Ride Along remains the record holder with $41.5 million.
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Taken 3 didn’t match the $49.5 million debut of Taken 2 in October 2012, but that film faced far less competition. The threequel unseated The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies, which placed No. 1 for three straight weekends.
Watch the Taken 3 trailer:
Taken 3 reteams Neeson with castmembers Famke Janssen and Maggie Grace, and introduces Forest Whitaker to the franchise. Olivier Megaton returns in the director’s chair, while Besson and Robert Mark Kamen once again wrote the script. This time out, ex-covert operative Bryan Mills (Neeson) avenges the death of his ex-wife.
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Ava DuVernay’s Golden Globe nominee Selma came in No. 2 as it expanded nationwide following a a limited Christmas release. The civil rights drama, starring David Oyelowo as Martin Luther King Jr., grossed north of $11 million from 2,157 locations (official numbers from Paramount weren’t immediately available) for an early total of nearly $14 million.
The critically acclaimed movie currently sports a 99 percent fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
A strong crop of holiday holdovers continued to do strong business, with both Into the Woods and Unbroken jumping the $100 million mark domestically.
Into the Woods, also Golden Globe best picture nominee, came in No. 3 with $9.8 million from 2,823 theaters, pushing its domestic total north to $105.3 million for Disney and director Rob Marshall. Overseas, the musical earned $7.6 million from 15 territories for an early foreign total of $15.3 million and global cume of $120.6 million. (Disney also celebrated Big Hero 6 jumping the $400 million mark worldwide.)
From New Line and MGM, Peter Jackson’s final Hobbit installment followed at No. 4 with $9.4 million from 3,402 locations. Through Sunday, the tentpole has grossed $236.5 domestically and north of $700 million worldwide.
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Angelina Jolie’s Unbroken (the Universal movie was snubbed by the Globes, but is considered a likely Oscar player) grossed $8.4 million from 3,301 theaters for a North American total of $101.6 million. The movie took in $5.7 million internationally from 24 markets, including a $1.5 million debut in France, where moviegoing slowed in Paris because of the devastating terrorist attacks. Unbroken has earned a total of $14 million overseas for an early worldwide total of $115.6 million.
The Imitation Game, another Globe contender, continues to impress as it moved up the chart to No. 6, earning $7.6 million from 1,566 locations for an outstanding North American total of $40.7 million for The Weinstein Co. and star Benedict Cumberbatch.
More to come.
