October 9, 2012 by Vinnie Leduc
Despite a trailer that was less than awesome, Taken 2 debuted to huge October numbers (good for third-highest ever in the month with just a couple million behind last year’s record-holder Paranormal Activity 3 and Jackass 3D). The action thriller’s $49.5 million was double the opening of the original Taken at the domestic box office, illustrating once again that in America, horrible reviews don’t equate to low grosses, and vice versa… go see Dredd while you still can, people!
Last week’s champ, Hotel Transylvania fell to second and sucked the life out of debut of the third supernatural-themed animated movie in two months and the second in two weeks, Tim Burton’s black-and-white stop-motion Frankenweenie, which died out of the gate with little to no hope of resurrection. Frankenweenie opened in fifth place.
Pitch Perfect, which was sixth last week in limited release, expanded to a wide release and jumped up to winners’ podium at third place, and last week’s runner-up, Looper, slipped to fourth. Here were the weekend’s top five below via BOM:
- Taken 2 — Weekend Gross: $49.5 million — Total Gross: $49.5 million (new)
- Hotel Transylvania — Weekend Gross: $27.1 million — Total Gross: $76.7 million (#1 last week)
- Pitch Perfect — Weekend Gross: $14.8 million — Total Gross: $21.7 million (#6 last week)
- Looper — Weekend Gross: $12.1 million — Total Gross: $40.2 million (#2 last week)
- Frankenweenie — Weekend Gross: $11.4 million — Total Gross: $11.4 million (new)
You can discuss this with more MediaStinger fans on Facebook, you can follow us on Twitter at @MediaStinger, and you can follow writer Vinnie Leduc on Twitter at @MovieVVhore.
