Weekend box office: Taken 3 and Selma are at the top

Brad Sturdivant January 11th, 2015

TAKEN 3 was almost comically trashed by critics, but that didn’t stop it from easily taking the top spot at the weekend box office. The first TAKEN “took” in about $24.7 million on its opening weekend, while the second one doubled that with $49.5 million. The third film didn’t do quite as well as the second, but it still managed to bring in close to $40 million, proving that people still love Liam Neeson talking on the phone. Coming in at second place was the Martin Luther King Jr. pic, SELMA, which has been shrouded in controversy as some critics and historians are claiming it doesn’t quite have the facts right. It’s a bit of a slippery slope, but my feeling with “true” historical movies is that no matter how great they are, they’re still movies. If you want to know what really happened, get off your rear and go read a history book. Don’t rely on Hollywood to tell you what happened.

If you didn’t know what time of the year it was, you might think next weekend was a big summer weekend based on the films that are opening. We have the Chris Hemsworth starring and Michael Mann directed BLACKHAT. For comedy, we get Kevin Hart’s latest, THE WEDDING RINGER. And if you want to take the kiddies to something, you can make them sit through PADDINGTON and then tell them that bear was popular when you were a kid. Finally, if the new movies don’t excite you and you haven’t been able to catch up with some of the limited releases, AMERICAN SNIPER and INHERENT VICE are both opening wide, so hopefully they’ll make it to a theater near you. Note: the numbers below will be updated as they become final.

1. Taken 3 $38.6m

2. Selma $11.75m

3. Unbroken $8.23m

4. Into the Woods $8.68m

5. The Hobbit: The Battle of Five Armies $8.61m

6. Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb $7.3m

7. Imitation Game $7.04m

8. The Woman in Black 2 Angel of Death $5.4m

9. Annie $4.3m

10. The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1 $3.8m

(Deadline)