"Taken 2" Takes the Box Office

Sometimes I wonder if anybody really pays any attention to film critics. Sometimes they love a certain film, but nobody else really goes to see it. Sometimes they diss another film, and then everybody and their mother goes to see it. It's kind of strange how that works, and that bizarre phenomenon just happened again with Taken 2.

In its debut weekend, Taken 2 took in a very nice $50 million in the U.S. and Canada, which is a little less than $30 million more than its predeccessor nabbed on its opening weekend ($24.7 million in 2009).

If you total up both domestic and international ticket sales, Taken 2 is leading the pack at $117 million over its opening weekend. Not bad, not bad at all, considering the material the film covers (the sex trade, torture, and other such issues).

Then again, so many people love Liam Neeson that even if the film was bad it would probably still make a lot of money. That's star-power for you!

Frankenweenie, another film that debuted last weekend, didn't do so hot. It came in at fifth place with $11.5 million. Personally, I'm kind of suprised that it even got that much money. Maybe its just me, but Frankenweenie looks like a very disturbing movie. Well, it would disturb me, anyway, especially after reading an article about real scientists who did bring their dead dogs back to life after killing them...

But I digress...

According to the Star Tribune, "'Frankenweenie' had a modest debut compared to Burton's last animated feature, 'Corpse Bride,' which took in $19.1 million in its first weekend of wide release in 2005. Both films were made through stop-motion animation, using puppets moved incrementally and photographed a frame at a time.

"'Corpse Bride' had the advantage of Burton's superstar pal, Johnny Depp leading the voice cast. And 'Frankenweenie' was a tough sell both for its stop-motion style, which is far less popular than the computer-generated look of today's animation blockbusters, and for its black-and-white presentation, done in homage to classic monster movies."

Personally, I'd rather see Hotel Translyvania or an old 1940s Dracula film than Frankenweenie, but that's just my opinion.


Here are the estimated ticket sales for Friday, October 5th through Sunday, October 7th in the U.S. and Canada (courtesy of the Star Tribune):

1. Taken 2 - $50 million
2. Hotel Translyvania - $26.3 million
3. Pitch Perfect - $14.7 million
4. Looper - $12.2 million
5. Frankenweenie - $11.5 million
6. End of Watch - $4 million
7. Trouble with the Curve - $3.9 million
8. House at the End of the Street - $3.7 million
9. The Master - $1.8 million
10. Finding Nemo 3D - $1.6 million




 - Edessa, signing off