‘Taken 2’ debuts on top in US

LOS ANGELES, USA – Liam Neeson’s return as ex-CIA agent Bryan Mills in “Taken 2” easily topped the North American box office on its opening weekend, industry estimates showed Sunday.

The film, whose prequel relaunched Neeson as a Hollywood action star 4 years ago, took in a healthy US$50-M between Friday and Sunday, said movie tracker Exhibitor Relations.

The plot in “Taken 2” sees Mills kidnapped in Istanbul by the family of the Albanian gangsters whom he killed when searching for his daughter, played by Maggie Grace, in “Taken.”

This time round, Grace searches for Mills.

In second place this weekend was “Hotel Transylvania,” where animated monsters become Dracula’s guests, taking in US$26.3-M — down from the top spot one week ago.

“Pitch Perfect,” a teen comedy-musical, was in 3rd, up 3 places, with US$14.7-M in takings, according to the estimates.

In 4th place, with US$12.2-M, was “Looper,” a mob movie starring Bruce Willis and Joseph Gordon-Levitt, just ahead of “Frankenweenie,” Tim Burton’s latest effort, that earned US$11.5-M.

Cop drama “End of Watch” with Jake Gyllenhaal was in 6th place, down from 3rd, on lowly takings of US$4-M, followed by Clint Eastwood’s “Trouble with the Curve,” about a baseball recruiter losing his sight, on US$3.9-M.

Fright flick “House at the End of the Street” brought in US$3.7-M this weekend, falling to 8th spot from 5th, while “The Master,” about the rise of a religious leader in the United States in the 1950s, played by Philip Seymour Hoffman, earned US$1.8-M in 9th place.

Rounding out the top 10 was the 3D version of pioneering 2003 animated movie “Finding Nemo,” which took an estimated US$1.6-M at the box office. – Agence France-Presse

Have you seen ‘Taken 2’? Let us know what you think of it by sending in your 5-sentence review to desk@rappler.com with subject heading POOLED REVIEWS.