While Hollywood was busy celebrating the best of last year, audiences were rushing to the theater to see the first big hits of 2014. Liam Neeson again proved that he’s the top action star at the moment, with Non-Stop coming out on top at the box office. Son of God also started off with a strong second place finish.
Non-Stop did better than Neeson’s recent efforts, opening with $30 million. As Box Office Mojo notes, this is Universal’s third No. 1 movie of the year already. It previously had hits with Lone Survivor and Ride Along. Audiences loved Non-Stop, giving it an A- CinemaScore grade, so it should stick around for the next few weeks.
Meanwhile, Son of God brought the Christian crowd to the theaters, even if they had seen most of it last year as The Bible on The History Channel. The movie, produced by Mark Burnett and released by Fox, did far better than expected. It grossed $26.5 million, notes TheWrap.
The LEGO Movie had been winning the box office, but fell to No. 3 this weekend. The animated hit from Warner Bros. grossed $21 million, more than enough to zoom past the $200 million mark overall. Dreamworks’ Mr. Peabody & Sherman opens next weekend, so LEGO’s monopoly on the younger crowd may be coming to an end.
The Monuments Men added $5 million, while 3 Days To Kill dropped to $4.9 million. Both Robocop and Pompeii made around $4.5 million.
image courtesy of image.net/Universal