Well, Son of God failed to ignite the religious base with the same fervor as something such as Mel Gibson‘s The Passion of the Christ, but considering it’s a film edited down from a television mini-series, which is to say it’s essentially the same as printing money, the $26.5 million it brought in for a second place finish this weekend is nothing to dismiss. In fact, it might not be done as it dipped only 2% from Friday to Saturday and it’s not quite clear just how well it might end up doing on Sunday. Fox also has to love that “A-” CinemaScore, but what else would you expect?
Taking #1, however, is the latest Liam Neeson actioner, Non-Stop, bringing in $30 million and an “A-” CinemaScore.
Non-Stop is the second highest opening for one of Neeson’s latest actioners, second only to Taken 2 ($49.5 million), but higher than The Grey ($19.6m), Unknown ($21.8m) and Taken ($24.7m) and given the “A-” CinemaScore, Fox may be smiling after Taken 2 wasn’t exactly received well, but this may rejuvenate the geriatric action fans as he preps for Taken 3. Yes, Bryan Mills is coming back, but as Neeson told the Jonathan Ross Show, his return was contingent on one thing, “[O]nly as long as nobody gets Taken!”
Meanwhile, we have our first film of 2013 to cross the $200 million mark as The Lego Movie added another $21 million and crossed $209 million domestically.
Speaking of big money at the box office, Frozen has finally done the expected, crossing $1 billion worldwide, becoming the eighteenth film to do so, here’s the list via Box Office Mojo:
- Avatar – $2.7823 billion
- Titanic – $2.1868 billion
- The Avengers – $1.5186 billion
- Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 – $1.3415 billion
- Iron Man 3 – $1.2154 billion
- Transformers: Dark of the Moon – $1.1238 billion
- The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King – $1.1199 billion
- Skyfall – $1.1086 billion
- The Dark Knight Rises – $1.084 billion
- Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest – $1.0662 billion
- Toy Story 3 – $1.0632 billion
- Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides – $1.0457 billion
- Jurassic Park – $1.0292 billion
- Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace – $1.027 billion
- Alice in Wonderland – $1.0255 billion
- The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey – $1.017 billion
- The Dark Knight – $1.0046 billion
- Frozen – $1.000.2 billion
It’s amazing 18 films have accomplished this feat, but if you look at that list carefully what do you notice? Only three films listed are original, non-franchise features, Frozen along with Titanic and Avatar. Can Disney afford not to make another one?
In other Disney news, Hayao Miyazaki‘s The Wind Rises wasn’t able to muster up enough interest to crack the top ten, bringing in only $1.6 million.
[amz asin=”B0083XXWRE” size=”small”]And finally, the “Super-Sized R-rated Version” of Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues managed $1.3 million from 1,317 theaters.
Coming up next weekend it will be a bit of a busy one with the sequel 300: Rise of an Empire smashing into theaters along with the animated film that hopes to pick up where Lego left off, Mr. Peabody & Sherman. It also sees the limited release of Wes Anderson‘s The Grand Budapest Hotel.
