Box Office on Track to Be 'Taken' by Liam Neeson

Taken 3

Do you know how happy I am that 20th Century Fox changed Taken 3's title, and I didn't have to type "Box Office on Track to Be 'Tak3n' by Liam Neeson"? Very, very glad, my friends.

With no competition from new wide releases, the third and final film in the Taken trilogy (now that poor daughter will finally get to take a break) should be able to handily take the number one spot from holiday holdover The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies. Taken 2 opened at nearly $50 million in 2012, but Taken 3 is very unlikely to hit that mark due to decreased audience interest in the franchise; Fox is aiming for a nice, round $30 million instead.

After a solid limited run that's earned it $2.2 million so far, civil rights drama Selma hits wide release today at 2,179 theatres. Chances are good for it to beat the diminishing returns of the Christmas set (The Hobbit, Into the Woods, Unbroken and Night at the Museum: The Secret of the Tomb), as well. Expect those first three to fill out the top five.

In terms of limited releases, Paul Thomas Anderson's Inherent Vice expands from 16 theatres to 645. Reception is more mixed than with other Anderson movies, and there hasn't been as much awards buzz. Cracking the top 10 will be possible, but by no means assured.

Predestination

Among the even smaller releases you lucky ducks in major movie markets like New York and LA will get to see, we have '70s Appalachian drama The World Made Straight, starring Noah Wyle and Jeremy Irvine (the reviews have been quite good, unlike Irvine's The Woman in Black 2, which came out last weekend and will likely see its numbers bottom out due to poor word-of-mouth); the Spierig brothers' time travel thriller Predestination; the period piece Beloved Sisters; and Dutch drama It's All So Quiet, featuring a tour de force performance from the late Jeroen Willems.