By Lisa Richwine
Liam Neeson thriller Taken 2 won a battle between two hostage movies over the weekend, holding on to its top box office rankings for a second week with $22.5m from ticket sales at US and Canadian theaters.
Ben Affleck’s highly praised Iran hostage thriller Argo was as close second, earning $20.1m from Friday through Sunday. Low-budget horror movie Sinister came in third with $18.3m, according to studio estimates.
Action sequel Taken 2 stars Neeson as a former CIA agent who is captured while on vacation in Istanbul. The movie has pulled in $86.8m at North American (US and Canadian) theaters since its debut a week ago, plus $132.8m from international markets.
“We continue to play broadly across all demographics and it is a testament to the strength of Liam’s character and the property,” said Chris Aronson, president of domestic distribution at 20th Century Fox, which released the film. With a worldwide box office total already reaching nearly $220m, he said the film was close to equaling the final box office total of the first Taken movie ($226.8m), and therefore labeled the sequel as “a much bigger movie.”
Taken 2 sales outpaced receipts for Argo, a movie that Affleck stars in and directs. The film is based on a real-life CIA plot to smuggle six US diplomats out of Iran in 1979 under the guise of a fake movie production.
The diplomats had escaped the storming of the US Embassy in Tehran at the height of the Islamic revolution. They hid at the Canadian embassy until a CIA agent came to sneak them out of the country.
Argo is generating buzz as an Oscar contender after earning stellar marks from critics, with 94 percent of reviews collected on the Rotten Tomatoes website praising the film. Ahead of the weekend, box-office forecasters had predicted an opening of $15m or more.
“The movie is like the perfect storm, everything came together at the right time,” said Dan Fellman, president of theatrical distribution for Warner Bros, noting that the combination of the film’s appeal to all ages combined with critical acclaim and awards season buzz would spell a long commercial run.
“It’s going to have legs,” he said. “Critical acclaim is going to translate into commercial success.”
Warner Bros and GK Films paid about $44m to produce the movie.
Reuters
