Liam Neeson’s ‘Taken’ Wins Big at Box Office

20th Century Fox

The new thriller flick starring Liam Neeson has reigned supreme at the North American box offices over the weekend with earnings of $24.6 million.

According to a spokesman for distributor 20th Century Fox, Taken played to a mix of men and women in less than 3,200 cinemas, averaging approximately $7,700 each theater.

Even with the spotlight on Super Bowl, the box office enjoyed profits totaling $103 million for the top 12 movies. However, the figures are off 20% compared with those from the last weekend, and only to some extent ahead of the same weekend in 2008, information from box office tracker Media by Numbers.

In Taken, Neeson plays Bryan, a former CIA agent compelled to take a sabbatical to watch over his daughter, who goes to Europe and gets herself abducted by contemporary slave traders, which then prompts the ex-spy to go on a villain hunt and save his daughter. The movie marks Neeson’s comeback to the thriller genre after his stint in Batman Begins.