Friday Box Office, Real Steel | featured news

Liam Neeson and ‘Taken 2” are looking at a $48 million weekend after blasting past their box office rivals Friday and rolling to a first-day total of $18.6 million. The gangbusters debut for Fox’s PG13-rated action sequel marks the second consecutive week a movie has broken out and lifted the box office into positive territory. If the weekend stays on pace, it will finish more than 30 percent ahead of last year, when “Real Steel” lead the way with a $27 million debut.

FRIDAY 10:30 PM UPDATE: Here are the Top 10 movies at the North American box office tonight. Analysis coming: 1) Real Steel (DreamWorks/Disney) NEW [3,440 Theaters] Friday $8.7M, Estimated Weekend $27M; 2) The Ides Of March (Smokehouse/Sony) NEW [2,199 Theaters] Friday $3.7M, Estimated Weekend $11M; 3) Dolphin Tale (Alcon/Warner Bros) Week 3 [3,478 Theaters] Friday $2.4M, Estimated Weekend $8.5M, Estimated Cume $48.4M