Liam Neeson 's new thriller 'The Grey' is expected to comfortably win the box-office battle this weekend. The movie, which sees Neeson's character attempting to evade a pack of Alaskan wolves, took around $6.5 million on Friday and should have taken $18 million by Monday, according to the Hollywood Reporter.
The early success of the movie appears to cement Neeson's unlikely new status as one of Hollywood's most bankable action stars. Recent turns in 'Taken' and 'Unknown' were both hugely popular with audiences, and 'The Grey' is likely to pick up where they left off. Elsewhere at this weekend's box office, Katherine Heigl stars in 'One for the Money', based on the detective novels of author Janet Evanovich. The actress plays the unemployed and newly divorced Stephanie Plum, who manages to land a job at her cousin's bail-bond business and is assigned the job of tracking down a local cop from her romantic past. After taking around $4.3 million on Friday, One for the Money is expected to take around $12 million this weekend to finish in second place. The weekend's third new movie, action-thriller Man on a Ledge, starring Sam Worthington, had an underwhelming Friday by taking just $2.5 million. The film is likely to gross around $6 million over the weekend.
Liam Neeson is currently filming a sequel to 'Taken', in which his character Bryan Mills is taken hostage by the father of a kidnapper he killed in the original movie.