Not even the son of God dares challenge the box office authority of Liam Neeson, and the grizzled old action star (think about that for a second...Kinsey is an action hero) is on top with Non-Stop. The Taken model continues to pay dividends for Neeson in this unlikely stage of his career, proving that he is one of the most bankable genre stars around. Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger would trade in their sagging muscles for his numbers any day. This gives Neeson two movies in the top 3, let's not forget he plays a key role in The LEGO Movie, and only bodes well for his next two films: Taken 3 and Run All Night. Expect Non-Stop to continue performing well, easily recouping its $50M budget, and shooting past $100M or very close to it.
2. Son of God- $26.5M
Thanks to a coordinated campaign against Darren Aronofsky's Noah, there was some talk earlier this week that Son of God may beat Non-Stop as religious groups sought to make their presence felt. They certainly showed their strength in numbers as the film, which is basically made up from leftover scraps of last year's The Bible miniseries, debuted to a biblical $26.5M. It's still a far cry from what The Passion of the Christ did a decade ago, but that was more of an event picture backed by a ton of early hype.
3. The LEGO Movie- $21M/$209.3M
4. The Monuments Men- $5M/$65.6M
Surpasses $100M worldwide.
5. 3 Days to Kill- $4.9M/$20.7M
Tumbles 60% after a mediocre start. As we said last week, this is one producer/writer Luc Besson will be pimping hard in France, so it may still perform reasonably well. Plus it only cost $28M.
6. Robocop- $4.5M/$51.2M
Robocop has served its brand of justice overseas with a worldwide haul of $187M.
7. Pompeii- $4.3M/$17.7M
Luke warm domestically, but a scorcher overseas with $65M overall.
8. Frozen- $3.6M/$388.7M
Big news on the Frozen front, as the hit animated film has hit the $1B mark worldwide. That makes it the highest-grossing Disney animated film, surpassing The Lion King, and the second highest overall when factoring in Pixar's Toy Story 3.
9. About Last Night- $3.4M/$43.7M
10. Ride Along- $3M/$127.1M
In other news, Disney expanded Hayao Miyazaki's Oscar-nominated The Wind Rises into an additional 475 theaters, resulting in 400% bump from last week. Domestically it only stands at $2M after two weeks which isn't bad for a Japanese animated film geared towards adults, and with $114M racked up worldwide already it doesn't really matter.
And finally, Paramount pumped out a super-sized R-rated cut of Anchorman: The Legend Continues, supposedly with 95% of fresh material. The hook worked, no doubt bolstered by claims this is the final Ron Burgundy movie, and it earned $1.3M in about 1000 theaters.
