( Entertainment Weekly ) -- With an unexpectedly big gross of $ 24.6 million , according to Sunday 's early estimates , Liam Neeson 's kidnapping thriller `` Taken '' was the easy victor at the box office on this Super Bowl weekend . Liam Neeson stars in 20th Century Fox 's `` Taken , '' which debuted at No . 1 this weekend . That 's a particularly impressive feat for a male-baiting film whose key audience has had plenty of distractions during this national football holiday frame . To be sure , the movie drew an A- CinemaScore review from a crowd that was nearly three-fifths men and 70 percent over the age of 25 -- an almost exact mirror of the big game 's core demographic . For Neeson , who has n't starred in a major Hollywood release since 2005 's `` Batman Begins '' and `` The Chronicles of Narnia : The Lion , the Witch , and the Wardrobe '' ( to which he lent his voice ) , this is a nice turn of events , indeed : The $ 24.6 million premiere is the fifth best of his career , and , really , the top debut ever for a flick featuring him as a solo lead star . Certainly , `` Taken 's '' weekend sum could decrease slightly after the Super Bowl is played tonight and the actual final Friday-to-Sunday box office figures are calculated , but the film has no chance of falling out of first place . That 's because its next closest competitor was two-time champ `` Paul Blart : Mall Cop , '' which brought in $ 14 million and fell to No . 2 . With $ 83.4 million in the bank to date , the Kevin James comedy is basically assured of becoming the first 2009 release to gross $ 100 million . `` The Uninvited '' ( No . 3 ) was next , with a decent $ 10.5 million -- exactly the kind of first-weekend number that all Asian horror remakes seem to get these days . `` Hotel for Dogs '' ( No . 4 with $ 8.7 million ) and `` Gran Torino '' ( No . 5 with $ 8.6 million ) rounded out the top five . ( At $ 110.5 million and counting , `` Gran Torino '' is now the top-grossing movie of Clint Eastwood 's career . ) And the other big new release , the Renee Zellweger comedy `` New in Town '' -- the kind of female-friendly counterprogramming that studio bigwigs typically expect to do well on weekends like this -- got little love at No . 8 , earning just $ 6.8 million . Among Best Picture nominees , `` Slumdog Millionaire '' once again fared best , banking $ 7.7 million at No . 6 , while all the others fell outside of the top 10 ( i.e . they all banked less than about $ 3.7 million a piece ) . That result is a tad disappointing for `` The Reader '' and `` Milk , '' as both movies expanded somewhat wide this weekend ( they grossed $ 2.4 million and $ 1.4 million , respectively ) . Overall , the cumulative box office was essentially flat with the same frame a year ago , when the Hannah Montana/Miley Cyrus concert film came out of nowhere to be the big winner . Just like the Arizona Cardinals will do tonight . CLICK HERE to Try 2 RISK FREE issues of Entertainment Weekly . Copyright 2009 Entertainment Weekly and Time Inc. All rights reserved .
Paul Blart kidnap thriller `` Taken '' took home a big gross of $ 24.6 million . `` Taken 's '' weekend sum could decrease slightly after the Super Bowl . `` Liam Neeson 's : CinemaScore brought in $ 24.6 million , falling to the No . nearly three-fifths spot .