Liam Neeson is apparently box office gold: ‘Taken 2’ clung to the top of the box office this weekend despite a 54.6% drop, beating out newcomers like ‘Argo’ for first place. The $22.5 million haul is arguably less than ideal given that the original ‘Taken’ only suffered a 16.9% drop on its second weekend, and it looks like the sequel will have a very tough time meeting the final $145 million tally of ‘Taken’.
Close behind in second place, Ben Affleck pulls a hat trick by producing, directing and starring in ‘Argo’. The suspense flick netted $20 million over the weekend, which is rather low. However, directing projects with a little more depth has proved to produce a career revival for Affleck, so the low box office numbers might not necessarily matter to him if he manages to net a few more strong reviews for his work behind the camera.
In third place, we have another indie horror film, ‘Sinister’, which snagged $18 million to cover its $3 million budget. Attention, horror directors: if you want to call yourself indie and be a success, go really, really indie; lately it seems the lower the budget, the better the profit. We’ll see how ‘Sinister’ holds up in coming weeks once ‘Paranormal Activity 4’ hits theatres.
‘Hotel Transylvania’ slid 36% from second to fourth place, pulling in $17.3 million. Finally, in fifth place, Kevin James returns to a starring role in ‘Here Comes the Boom’, which pulled in $12 million for the weekend. That’s his lowest opening yet, even after ‘The Dilemma’, which pulled in roughly $17 million. That’s a bit of an “ouch” for James, but ‘Boom’ doesn’t have a lot of competition on the charts right now, so it might linger along decently enough throughout the rest of the month.
A great film if all you want to do is get away and forget about things
A good film but not as good as the first one.