Thriller ‘Taken’ snatches early box office lead
LOS ANGELES (AFP) - - Thriller “Taken,” starring Liam Neeson as a former spy working to rescue his kidnapped daughter, snatched an early North American box office lead over the weekend, Exhibitor Relations said Sunday.
The feature by French director Pierre Morel secured 24.6 million dollars in nearly 3,200 theaters in the United States and America — an average of 7,700 dollars per theater — during its opening weekend, according to preliminary figures released by the box office tracker.
Comedy “Paul Blart: Mall Cop” was in second place after two consecutive weeks in the lead. The film, starring Kevin James as a mall security guard who fights off a criminal gang, pocketed 14 million, for an 83.3-million-dollar total since it opened in theaters.
Supernatural thriller “The Uninvited,” another fresh entry in theaters, scared up to third spot with 10.5 million. It came ahead of the family-friendly “Hotel for Dogs,” which earned 8.7 million dollars.
In fifth place was Clint Eastwood as a foul-mouthed Korean War veteran in “Gran Torino,” which raked in 8.6 million to bring its overall earnings to 110.5 million dollars over eight weeks.
Mumbai-set “Slumdog Millionaire,” which has earned a whopping 10 Oscar nominations, came in sixth with 7.7 million.
“Underworld: Rise of the Lycans,” the third episode of the “Underworld” series, came in seventh at 7.2 million dollars, followed by the new comedy “New in Town” starring Renee Zellweger, at 6.8 million.
Blood-soaked “My Bloody Valentine 3D” took in 4.3 million, falling to ninth, ahead of “Inkheart,” in which fictional characters come to life from the pages of books, which drew 3.7 million.
Overall ticket sales of 110.2 million dollars were down nearly 15 percent from last weeken, as Sunday’s American football Super Bowl grabbed sports fans’ attention.
