Five—count ’em, five—national releases trundled out to theaters this week, but none of them could take down Liam Neeson.
Then again, if they’d seen Taken 2, maybe they were just too scared to try.
Taken 2 held onto its earnings crown by virtue of an estimated $22.5 million weekend. The thriller has already sprinted past the $86 million mark and seems a pretty sure bet to become the 20th movie this year to make more than $100 million.
Argo, Ben Affleck’s critically acclaimed political thriller, has no such assurances. This based-on-a-true-story-based-on-a-fake-movie movie earned $20.1 million during its first weekend of release—not too bad, really, but it won’t be enough to greenlight an Argo 2 anytime soon. (Probably for the best, really.) Still, Argo will probably claim a few more honors than Taken 2 when the cinematic awards season gets underway.
Sinister, an aptly named creepfest directed by Scott Derrickson, slithered into third place with $18.3 million—topping a slightly less horrifying monster movie, Hotel Transylvania, for third place. Meanwhile, Kevin James’ mixed martial arts comedy Here Comes the Boom got roughed up a little, pounding its way to a scant 12 million buckaroos.
As for the other two new releases, the star-studded, fanatically violent Seven Psychopaths proved that box office success is not directly correlative to the amount of blood spilled: It opened in ninth place with $4.3 million, or a dollar for every quart or so shed in the movie.
And Atlas Shrugged: Part II? The audience shrugged—again. The second of three planned movies based on Ayn Rand’s capitalist opus made $1.7 million and landed in 11th place. The good news for Rand fans is that Part II made ever-so-slightly more than the first installment (Part I clocked in at $1.68 mil). The bad news is that Part II was released on 700 more screens, meaning its per-screen average was way, way less. Will moviegoers ever learn who John Galt is? Time will tell.
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