Liam Neeson Can't Get Rid of These Albanians
Welcome to the Box Office Report, where 'Liam Neeson punching things' is always an easy way to sell a movie.
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1. Taken 2 (Fox): $50 million in 3,661 theaters
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"Hey, remember when Liam Neeson did that movie where he kicked a lot of terrorist butt for 90 minutes and it was awesome? Let's do that again," is literally the pitch for Taken 2. And that's okay. Who doesn't want to watch Liam Neeson be a bad ass for 90 minutes? Crazy people, that's who.
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2. Hotel Transylvania (Sony): $26.3 million in 3,352 theaters [Week 2]
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It's kind of amazing that Hotel Transylvania is still doing well. The trend lately has seen grosses plummet after the first week (See: Looper, two spots down.) but HT only dropped by about 35 percent. Good for you, Adam Sandler and friends. Good for you.
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3. Pitch Perfect (Universal): $14.7 million in 2,770 theaters [Week 2*]
*Pitch Perfect technically opened last week, but it was only in a handful of theaters. Now that it's added 2,000 plus, the whole country can appreciate Anna Kendrick's pretty voice. Lawson compared this one to Bring It On. Expectations should be high because Bring It On is one of the great cinematic achievements of our time.
4. Looper (TriStar): $12.2 million in 2,993 theaters [Week 2]
Bruce Willis' performance in this really cannot get enough praise. The diner conversation with Joseph Gordon-Levitt is one of the movie's best scenes, where Willis puts an extra amount of oomph behind a dismissive, "boy" he delivers to JGL's character. It's as much a conversation between two actors as it is between the two characters.
5. Frankenweenie (Buena Vista): $11.5 million in 3,005 theaters
Woof. Tim Burton can't even make an darkly animated kids movie based on a short film he did when he still had orignal ideas successful. Sorry, dude. Maybe it's time to hang it up.
