Liam Neeson’s rock-hard thriller The Grey has slogged its way to the top of the US box office, after an opening weekend of $20 million knocked Underworld: Awakening off its perch.
The vampires and werewolves saga slipped to second with a $12.5 million weekend, narrowly edging out Katherine Heigl’s latest misfire, One For The Money .
Red Tails slipped several places to fourth with $10.4 million, while Sam Worthington’s Man On A Ledge opened disappointingly with just $8.25 million in the coffers.
The Oscar-nominated Extremely Loud And Incredibly Close continued to underwhelm at the box office, adding just over $7 million to its overall haul. The Academy Award announcement also seemed to make a negligible influence on The Descendants which took around $6.5 million.
Mark Wahlberg’s Contraband was in eigth spot on $6.5 million, with another action thriller propping up the table in the shape of Haywire , on $4 million. Sandwiched between those two is the 3D refit of Beauty And The Beast , which took £5.3 million.
Next week sees Daniel Radcliffe arrive in US screens with The Woman In Black . Can he scare some life into an otherwise turgid box office? We’ll have to wait and see…