LOS ANGELES -- Sky thriller "Non-Stop" broke "The Lego Movie"'s near month-long hold on the box office to become the most-popular movie of the Oscar weekend in the U.S. and Canada.
"Non-Stop," starring Liam Neeson and Julianne Moore, debuted at cinemas across the United States Friday, was expected to rake in an estimate of 30 million U.S. dollars in ticket sales over the weekend, according to studio estimates done by box-office trackers Rentrak.
The 61-year-old Liam Neeson attracted more fans than critics, 58 percent of whom recommended the movie on the survey site Rotten Tomatoes. And the movie earned an "A-" from first night moviegoers, according to CinemaScore.
"Son Of God," another debut over the weekend featuring the Biblical tale of Jesus' life, opened at 3,260 locations in North America with 26.5 million dollars in estimated ticket sales. It came in the second place by the amount of estimated revenue from tickets sale. Compared with number of moviegoers giving it "A-" rank, there were more critics who were so skeptical to this religious film. Only 26 percent of the moviegoers recommended " Son Of God" from Rotten Tomatoes.
"The Lego Movie" was in the third place for chalking up an estimate of 21 million dollars in tickets earnings this weekend. Over four weeks, it has sold an estimated 209.3 million dollars in tickets, the biggest movie since the start of the year.
Rounding out the 10 most popular films in North America this weekend, as estimated by studios, were "Monuments Men" (5 million dollars), "3 Days To Kill" (4.9 million), "RoboCop" (4. 5 million), "Pompeii" (4.3 million), "Frozen" (3.6 million), "About Last Night" (3.4 million) and "Ride Along" (3.1 million) .
