Liam Neeson’s late career move to action movies continued to bear fruit as the “terror-in-the-air” thriller Non-Stop ended The LEGO Movie’s three-week reign as box office champion.  Non-Stop earned an estimated $30 million, coming in just ahead of the New Testament epic Son of God, which brought in an estimated $26.5 million.  The solid openings of the two newcomers along with another strong holdover performance by The LEGO Movie, gave Tinseltown another win as the total of the top 12 films was up 18.5% over the same weekend last year when Bryan Singer’s disappointing Jack the Giant Killer, which cost $195 million to produce, became the first of 2013’s notable bombs as it bowed to just $27.2 million.
 
Non-Stop represents a sort of return to form by Neeson, since its $30 million opening is a definite cut above those of some of his recent action movie efforts such as Unknown, which debuted with just $21.9 million in 2011, and The Grey, which bowed with $19.7 million in 2012.  Universal backed Non-Stop, which features an A-list supporting cast that includes Julianne Moore, Lupita Nyong’o (12 Years a Slave), and Michelle Dockery (Downton Abbey) with a major ad campaign during winter sporting events (including the Olympics).  Opening weekend audiences were 51% female and fairly well-balanced age-wise with 35% under 25.  Non-Stop earned a solid "A-" CinemaScore, which does augur well for the film’s prospects over the next few weeks, though it will face direct competition for its action movie audience from 300: Rise of an Empire (debuting March 7th) and Need for Speed (March 14th).
 
The strong second place showing for Son of God, a feature film based on the TV miniseries produced for the History Channel, is a reminder of the drawing power of religious films, which appeal to a cinematically underserved portion of the population.  The fact that this film, which consists almost entirely of footage that has already been shown on television, could open with $26.5 million testifies to potential power of serious Biblical films.  Remember that Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ set all sorts of Q1 box office records as it earned $370.8 million in 2004.  Son of God is no Passion of the Christ, which earned $26 million in its first day, but a lot of people underestimated this TV retread.  Son of God attracted a crowd that was predominantly female (62%) and quite a bit on the older side (82% over 25).  They gave the film a solid "A-" CinemaScore, though it is hard to predict the box office future of this film in large part because of its major exposure on TV.  Hispanics made up 22% of the opening weekend audience and Fox dubbed 200 prints in Spanish, which contributed about 4% of the film’s gross.  One of the big questions of 2014 is whether Son of God’s religious audience will show up for Darren Aronofsky’s big-budget Old Testament epic Noah, which debuts on March 28th?

Weekend Box Office (Studio Estimates): February 28 - March 2, 2014
	Film	Weekend Gross	Screens	Avg./ Screen	Total Gross	Wk#
1	Non-Stop	$30,019,000	3,090	$9,715	$30,019,000	1
2	Son of God	$26,500,000	3,260	$8,129	$26,500,000	1
3	The LEGO Movie	$21,015,000	3,770	$5,574	$209,325,000	4
4	The Monuments Men	$5,000,000	3,002	$1,666	$65,690,000	4
5	3 Days to Kill	$4,900,000	2,872	$1,706	$20,701,000	2
6	RoboCop	$4,500,000	2,885	$1,560	$51,210,000	3
7	Pompeii	$4,300,000	2,658	$1,618	$17,740,000	2
8	Frozen	$3,611,000	1,746	$2,068	$388,736,000	15
9	About Last Night	$3,400,000	1,804	$1,885	$43,750,000	3
10	Ride Along	$3,065,000	1,869	$1,640	$127,189,000	7

The LEGO Movie continues its strong run as it fell just 33% and earned an estimated $21 million, the 16th best fourth weekend showing of all time.  This weekend The LEGO Movie became the first 2014 film to cross the $200 million mark, and it has a chance to earn $300 million here, though it will face direct competition next weekend with the debut of Dreamworks’ Mr. Peabody & Sherman.
 
Fourth place went to George Clooney’s The Monuments Men, which declined 36.8% and brought its domestic total to $65.6 million.  The $70 million production still has a long way to go to reach profitability, though it continues to outperform its notices.
 
The Kevin Costner thriller 3 Days to Kill took it on the chin from Non-Stop as it tumbled 60% in its second weekend. 
 
Jose Padhilla’s Robocop remake fell 54.1% in its third weekend in theaters.   So far the $100 million film has earned just $52.1 million here in North America, but it is doing much better overseas.  This weekend it took in $30 million overseas where it has earned nearly 73% of its worldwide total of $187.2 million.
 
The disaster film Pompeii slipped 58.4% in its second weekend confirming its “bomb” status.  At the other end of the success spectrum Disney’s Frozen remained in the top 10 for the 14th straight weekend as it brought its North American total to $388.7 million.  But Frozen’s overseas take is now $611.5 million making it the 18th film to earn over $1 billion—and only the fifth movie that is not a sequel or a prequel to pass the billion dollar mark.
 
Hayao Miyazaki’s final film The Wind Rises expanded to 496 theaters and did OK, earning $1.3 million with a decent $3,234 per venue average.
 
Check back next week to see how the heavily-hyped animated feature Mr. Peabody & Sherman and 300: Rise of an Empire, which is adapted from a graphic novel by Frank Miller, do when they enter the weekend box office fray.