'The Grey' Captures #1 At Weekend Box Office
Katherine Heigl's 'One for the Money' and 'Man on a Ledge' also make the top five.
By Ryan J. Downey
Liam Neeson in "The Grey"
Photo: Open Road Films
It must be wintertime, because Liam Neeson is #1 at the box office again.
Following the January 2010 release of "Taken" and the February 2011 success of "Unknown," Liam Neeson returned to theaters in another action-heavy role with "The Grey" over the weekend and beat back all other contenders. "The Grey," about a group of oil workers stalked by wolves while stranded in the Alaskan wilderness, debuted with an estimated $20 million.
Katherine Heigl's "One for the Money" had a decent $11.8 million opening, which placed the PG-13 action comedy at #3 on the box-office scorecard. The Sam Worthington-led thriller "Man on a Ledge," on the other hand, opened at #5 with just $8.3 million.
Having proven his biopic mettle with heady fare like "Schindler's List" and "Kinsey," 59-year-old Neeson has entered a career groove playing rough-and-tumble anti-heroes in barn-burning action thrillers. While its opening numbers were slightly lower than "Unknown" ($21.9 million) and "Taken" ($24.7), "The Grey" enjoyed the best critical reviews of the action trio. "['The Grey'] takes death seriously, and partly as a consequence, every moment, every frame, feels alive," wrote New York Times film critic and former "At the Movies" co-host A.O. Scott.
The same cannot be said for "One for the Money," which at press time sat at just 3 percent on Rotten Tomatoes' "Tomatometer," which assigns ratings based on reviews from film critics.
"Heigl's comic timing is solid, and she knows her limitations well enough, but there's a hollowness at the movie's center, right where Heigl's heart should be," wrote Sam Adams of The Onion A.V. Club. The film's opening was lower than Heigl's 2010 rom-coms "Killers" ($15.8 million) and "Life as We Know It" ($13.2 million).
"Avatar" and "Clash of the Titans" star Sam Worthington received top billing in "Man on a Ledge," which sat at 25 percent on the Tomatometer at press time. Worthington plays a wrongly accused man who hatches an elaborate scheme to prove his innocence. The last movie co-starring Worthington was the war criminal/ spy drama "The Debt," which opened with $9.9 million.
The rest of the weekend's top five included "Underworld Awakening" at #2 with $12.5 million, which gave the fourth entry in the vampires-and-werewolves franchise a two-week total of $45.1 million, and "Red Tails" at #4 with $10.4 million. The George Lucas-produced World War II flick has made $33.8 million since it opened last weekend. Lucas financed the film's $58 million budget himself.
"The Descendants" and "The Artist" both received a boost from their respective awards season attention. George Clooney has racked up trophies for his starring role in the Alexander Payne-directed "Descendants," which expanded from 600 theaters to 2,000 and took in another $6.5 million for an 11-week total of $58.8 million. "The Artist," meanwhile, spiked 42 percent from last week. The Weinstein Co.-produced silent film has made $16.7 million after big wins at several award shows, including three prizes at the Golden Globes.
Check out everything we've got on "The Grey" and "Man on a Ledge."
For breaking news, celebrity columns, humor and more — updated around the clock — visit MTVMoviesBlog.com.
Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1678110/the-grey-movie-box-office.jhtml
Autumn Reeser Avril Lavigne Bali Rodriguez Bar Refaeli Beyoncé Bianca Kajlich Bijou Phillips Blake Lively Blu Cantrell Bonnie Jill Laflin Bridget Moynahan Britney Spears Brittany Daniel Brittany Lee Brittany Murphy