Liam Neeson’s Honest Thief stays on top of the weekend box office

Neeson keeps thieving in first!

Liam Neeson's criminal activity remained on top of the expectedly modest box office as HONEST THIEF collected an estimated $2.3 million over its second weekend.

The PG-13 thriller, with Neeson as a bank robber (with a particular set of skills) who tries to go legit, dropped by 35% from its wide US release last weekend, after a limited Canadian release before that.

The action movie, also featuring Jai Courtney and Kate Walsh, now has a domestic total of $7.5 million, and an extra $2.7 million from overseas gives it a worldwide total of $10.2 million.

In second place was the family comedy THE WAR WITH GRANDPA with $1.8 million on its third weekend, bringing the PG-rated Robert De Niro prank battle to a domestic total of $9.7 million and a worldwide total of $12.1 milion.

The PG-13 tech thriller TENET was in third place with $1.3 million, now on its ninth weekend in North American release. Filmmaker Christopher Nolan's $200 million action epic is up to a domestic total of $52.5 million and $342 million worldwide.

It seems that some releases have seen benefits from the trend of "private watch parties", where cinema chains will rent out an entire theater to a group (of fewer than 20 moviegoers) for a $100-$150 cost.

Opening in fourth place was the new R-rated horror movie THE EMPTY MAN with $1.26 million for the weekend as it came creeping onto 2000 screens.

Adapted from a Boom! comic series, the supernatural thriller with James Badge Dale investigating sinister activities was released by the (now) Disney-owned 20th Century Studios.

Disney controlled the middle of the chart with a cluster of catalog titles pushed back onto screens for the Halloween season.

The PG-rated stop-motion whimsy of THE NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS was in fifth place with $577,000, giving the 1993 Henry Selick/Tim Burton animated feature a running domestic total of $77 million. The reissue of 1993 horror-comedy HOCUS POCUS followed in sixth place with $530,000 for a cumulative domestic total of $43.6 million.

In seventh place was the re-release of Pixar's beloved MONSTERS, INC. with $494,000 on 1875 screens. The G-rated movie, with John Goodman and Billy Crystal voicing the top scream-producing workers of Monstropolis, has a domestic total of $290 million including its original 2001 release (and 3D conversion in 2012).

Filling out the list was the teen drama AFTER WE COLLIDED (which has a worldwide total of $38.3 million), the romantic drama 2 HEARTS, and the  X-MEN spinoff THE NEW MUTANTS hanging on at the bottom.

Russell Crowe's road-rage thriller UNHINGED departed the chart before it motors onto VOD next month.

Next weekend's new release is the Kevin Costner/Diane Lane thriller LET HIM GO, along with whatever else the studios dig up from their archives to put in whatever theaters and drive-ins are still open.

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