Liam Neeson Movie Thriller ‘Honest Thief’ Tops U.S. Box Office

Liam Neeson’s movie thriller “Honest Thief” repeated as the winner of a quiet domestic box office with $2.4 million across 2500 locations.

The Open Road film release declined 44% from its opening week and has taken in $7.5 million in its first 10 days in North America. The film’s distributor added extra screens in New York state following New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s advice to add movie theaters outside of New York City permission to reopen at lowered seating capacity as of on Oct. 23.

Honest Thief

Tom Ortenberg, CEO of Open Road said: “Our belief was that releasing a crowd-pleaser of a film, like ‘Honest Thief,’ at this point in time, would generate the positive word-of-mouth necessary to successfully propel the film for many weeks. Back to back weeks at number 1, confirms that belief.”

The “Honest Thief” number is one of the lowest-winning weekend totals in theaters during the past two months, but Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst for Comscore, said it demonstrated the fundamental appeal of the moviegoing experience.

“The performance of ‘Honest Thief’ proves that moviegoers haven’t given up on the theatrical experience and that an action thriller starring Liam Neeson is the perfect antidote to today’s trying times and supplies that big screen escape that audiences have been craving,” Dergarabedian said. “With an unlimited supply of content at home on the small screen, it should be heartening to theatrical exhibition that movies in theaters remain relevant to audiences and even though the box office numbers (for obvious reasons) are lower than what would be typically seen at this time of year, there is clearly an interest by consumers in the movie theater experience.”

101 Studios’ third weekend of family comedy “The War With Grandpa” showed solid holding power with a 25% decline to $1.9 million at 2,345 venues for a 17-day total of $9.7 million. The Robert De Niro vehicle led the box office over the Columbus Day weekend with $4 million, breaking the five-weekend winning streak of “Tenet,” the big-budget Christopher Nolan thriller.

Disney’s opening of horror-thriller “The Empty Man” debuted softly with $1.3 million at 2,027 domestic locations. In the film, James Badge Dale stars as an ex-cop dealing with a secretive group trying to summon a supernatural entity.

Christoper Nolan’s “Tenet” took in $1.3 million at 1,801 domestic site, declining only 15% in its eighth weekend. Warner Bros. opted to open “Tenet” in North America on Labor Day weekend and has seen domestic results top $52 million. The international results have been respectable with nearly $290 million, but the film’s modest domestic performance signaled a reluctance by many U.S. moviegoers to return to multiplexes amid the ongoing pandemic. Major studios have been delaying virtually every other high-profile release as a result.

During the past week, three more high profile titles — MGM’s “Legally Blonde 3,” Universal’s “Candyman” and Sony’s “Ghostbusters: Afterlife” — have been delayed.