Box Office: Taken 2 more than doubles the original’s opening

Taken 2 had the 3rd best fall opening of all time when it debuted with $49.5 million this past weekend. Hotel Transylvania was very strong again while Frankenweenie disappointed.

As everyone anticipated, Taken 2 had a great opening weekend, still riding on the overwhelming success and positive word of mouth that the original provided way back in January 2009. Now I haven’t seen the film yet so obviously I can’t give my two cents regarding how good it is, but if critical reception is anything to go by, expect a heavy drop from Taken 2 this coming weekend once people start talking about it. On the other hand the IMDB rating is looking good at 7.1/10, but those are almost always inflated in the first few weeks. So with $49.5 million from its debut and another $5.5 million on Monday, Taken 2 is already at $55 million in North America, more than double the $26.9 million Taken had after 4 days in theaters. We’ll find out very soon if the sequel can have enough staying power to match the $145 million total of the original. I’d wager the answer will be a no.

With a $27 million take, Hotel Transylvania was down just 36.4% from its record opening little over a week ago. Made for just $85 million, the 3D animation has collected $81.3 million after 11 days and judging by the way it performed so far, I think it could potentially beat The Smurfs ($142.6 million) to become Sony Pictures Animation’s highest grosser to date in North America.

The rather low-budget ($17 million) Universal Pictures comedy Pitch Perfect came in 3rd with $14.8 million for a total of $23.5 million so far. Meanwhile in 4th we had Looper, down 41.8% for $12.1 million, very good for any R-rated flick that isn’t a comedy. With $41.9 million after 11 days, Looper is well on its way to a total north of $65 million.

Rounding out the top 5 with a disappointing $11.4 million was Tim Burton’s Frankenweenie. While this certainly looks like a return to form for the director, the last few misses sporting his name may have had an effect on the size of his fanbase. Either that or the concept of a stop-motion black and white family film isn’t really that appealing to its target audience. I’m thinking the later might hold more ground here.