Forget The Oscars, Liam Neeson's 'Non-Stop' Has Topped The Box-Office
While all eyes were on the 86th Academy Awards in Los Angeles on Sunday evening (March 2, 2014), box-office boffins were tapping away on their calculators to figure out who had reigned supreme at the theaters. Liam Neeson's latest thriller Non-Stop - which received decent to middling reviews last week - was top of the shop, taking $30 million between Friday and Sunday.
Neeson plays an air marshal who must stop a string of murders on an international flight. It's pretty standard fare from the Irish actor, though since Taken, Neeson has found that there's a huge appetite for his action-thrillers.
Elsewhere, Son of God performed predictably well, taking $26.5 million to reach second place. The movie is adapted from the History Channel's miniseries The Bible.
The success of Non-Stop and Son of God put the stoppers on The Lego Movie's runaway success, knocking it down to third place after three weeks at the top. The animated flick made $21 million over the weekend, taking its total box-office haul to $209 million.
George Clooney's World War II drama The Monuments Men - tipped for Oscar success when first announced - was a distant fourth after taking just $5 million. The movie has been a blip on Clooney's otherwise impeccable run of movies over the past five years.
It was followed by 3 Days to Kill, in which Kevin Costner plays an international spy. That took $4.9 million.
Neeson is currently gearing up to get back in the saddle for Taken 3 - which should take around $400 billion at the box-office.