Even with five new movies competing at this weekend’s box office, Taken 2 had no trouble holding on to first place for a second week in a row. The action movie edged out Ben Affleck’s Argo and Friday’s first-place horror feature Sinister, though each put up strong debut numbers. The picture was not as rosy for the remaining three new releases, including Sony’s comedy Here Comes the Boom with Kevin James.

It’s a weekend box office worth celebrating, with grosses up more than 50% from 2011. That success was almost entirely due to Taken 2, which delivered an estimated $50 million from 3,661 runs for one of the highest October debuts of all time. On the other end of the spectrum, Disney’s Frankenweenie failed to impress; opening in fifth place with an estimated $11.5 million from 3,005 runs despite weeks of heavy promotion.

Now playing in theaters is director Olivier Megaton‘s Taken 2.  In the sequel, Liam Neeson’s character unwisely takes his family on a European vacation, only to find himself and his wife (Famke Janssen) taken hostage by the family members of the henchmen that Neeson brutally murdered in the first film.  The film also stars Maggie Grace and Rade Serbedzija. For more on the film, here’s four clips and all our previous coverage.

Last week in New York City I participated in two interviews with Neeson.  One was an exclusive video interview (which you can watch here), and the other was a roundtable interview with a number of other journalists.  During the group interview Neeson talked about how the sequel came together, what it was like filming in Istanbul, the car stunts, how much of a backstory he has created for the character, what it’s like being considered an action star, what props he’s taken home from set, his thoughts on a Taken 3, and more.  In addition, Neeson talked about working with Ricky Gervais on Life’s Too Short, told a great behind the scenes story about making Batman Begins, and revealed that Christopher Nolan wouldn’t tell him anything about The Dark Knight Rises.  Hit the jump for more.

October’s box office got off to an impressive start on Friday with the launch of Taken 2. More than three years after Liam Neeson and his “very particular set of skills” captivated audiences in Taken, the sequel took in an estimated $18.6 million from 3,661 locations on its opening day. That puts Taken 2 on track for a $50 million first weekend – more than double what its predecessor realized in its debut and just shy of the all-time October opening record set last year by Paranormal Activity 3. After setting a new record for a September opening last weekend, Hotel Transylvania remained a force on Friday with its second-place estimate of $6.5 million. Unfortunately, that was not good news for Disney’s Frankenweenie. With its similar theme and target audience, the stop-motion animated film from director Tim Burton fell short of Hotel Transylvania: earning an estimated $3.3 million from its 3,005 locations towards what should be a $12 million opening frame. We’ll have full details tomorrow.

Opening this weekend is director Olivier Megaton‘s Taken 2.  In the sequel, Liam Neeson’s character unwisely takes his family on a European vacation, only to find himself and his wife (Famke Janssen) taken hostage by the family members of the henchmen that Neeson brutally murdered in the first film.  The film also stars Maggie Grace and Rade Serbedzija. For more on the film, here’s four clips and all our previous coverage.

Last week in New York City I got to sit down with Megaton for an extended video interview.  We talked about how he came to direct the sequel, whether there were any sequences he struggled with, the running time, the first cut versus the final version, the editing process and dealing with the MPAA, future projects (which might include an adaptation of The Land of the Living), and Megaton revealed that the Taken 2 Blu-ray will include a longer cut of the film that’s unrated.  Hit the jump to watch.

In the action thriller Taken 2, from director Olivier Megaton and co-screenwriters Luc Besson (who’s also a producer on the film) and Robert Mark Kamen, Liam Neeson returns as Bryan Mills, the retired CIA agent who stopped at nothing to save his abducted daughter (Maggie Grace). Two years later, the family of those responsible are now seeking their own vengeance, this time on his ex-wife Lenore (Famke Janssen), with whom Bryan is hoping to reconcile.

During this recent exclusive phone interview with Collider, actress Famke Janssen talked about the surprise global success of the first film, her immediate reaction upon hearing about the sequel, working with a new director this time, and the experience of shooting in Istanbul. She also talked about taking three years away from acting to dedicate herself to her full-length feature debut as a writer/director, called Bringing Up Bobby, going through three hours of make-up to play a witch in Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters, what attracted her to the Eli Roth Netflix series Hemlock Grove, and the next film she’s hoping to direct. Check out what she had to say after the jump.

Opening this weekend is director Olivier Megaton‘s Taken 2.  In the sequel, Liam Neeson’s character unwisely takes his family on a European vacation, only to find himself and his wife (Famke Janssen) taken hostage by the family members of the henchmen that Neeson brutally murdered in the first film.  The film also stars Maggie Grace and Rade Serbedzija. For more on the film, here’s four clips and all our previous coverage.

Last week in New York City I got to sit down with Neeson for an exclusive interview.  We talked about whether he was hesitant to do a sequel, what it was like to film in Istanbul, whether the script changed during production, and more.  In addition, we also talked about what it was like to host Saturday Night Live, how he was unclear regarding the nature of his role in The Dark Knight Rises or if he’d even make the final cut, whether he’ll work again with Joe Carnahan and if he knows anything about Mark Millar‘s Nemesis.  He also talked playing an air marshal in director Jaume Collet-Serra‘s upcoming action film Non-Stop, which is being produced by Joel Silver.  Hit the jump to watch.

With director Olivier Megaton‘s Taken 2 opening October 5, 20th Century Fox has provided us with four clips.  In the sequel, Liam Neeson’s character unwisely takes his family on a European vacation, only to find himself and his wife (Famke Janssen) taken hostage by the family members of the henchmen that Neeson brutally murdered in the first film.   The film also stars Maggie Grace and Rade Serbedzija.

As a big fan of the first film, I’m looking forward to Neeson kicking some more ass in the sequel.  Hit the jump to watch the clips.

Recently, Liam Neeson threatened you into submission so you would watch his new trailer for Taken 2.  Then, the first featurette went online that showed off retired CIA operative Bryan Mills’ “skills and kills.” Today, we’ll continue the rhyming scheme with a new behind-the-scenes stunt featurette that highlights the sequel’s “thrills and spills.”  Imagine my surprise when I found out Neeson wasn’t actually killing all the people in the movie.  I still wouldn’t want to piss him off though.

Taken 2, from director Olivier Megaton, also stars Famke Janssen, Maggie Grace and  Rade Serbedzija.  The sequel hits theaters October 5th.  Hit the jump to watch the new stunts clip.

If these new images from Taken 2 didn’t do it for you, maybe seeing Liam Neeson in action in this new featurette will.  The sequel, directed by Olivier Megaton (Colombiana), puts the Mills family in the crosshairs when they vacation in Istanbul and are taken by the father of one of the kidnappers from the first film.  Mills (Neeson) hasn’t lost a step and now it looks like his wife, Lenore (Famke Janssen) and his daughter, Kim (Maggie Grace) are getting into the action a bit more.  But Rade Šerbedžija proves to be a bit more formidable than the previous gang of faceless thugs.  The film opens October 5th.  Hit the jump to check out the new featurette.

A short international trailer for Taken 2 has gone online.  The new trailer features some new footage, along with a brief moment that surprised me.  The previous trailer led me to believe that only Bryan Mills’ (Liam Neeson) wife (Famke Janssen) was going to be taken.  But in the new trailer, Mills says to his daughter (Maggie Grace), “Your mother and I are going to be taken,” and then we see a black bag getting put over his head.  Presumably, Mills doesn’t stay taken for too long because he has a very special set of skills.

Hit the jump to check out the trailer.  Taken 2 opens October 5th.

The first international trailer for Taken 2 has gone online.  As the new trailer shows, Bryan Mills (Liam Neeson) didn’t really think through the whole “going on a murderous rampage to save my daughter,”-thing and now the bad guys’ families want revenge.  This time around, it’s Mills’ wife (Famke Janssen) who gets taken, so this gives license for Liam Neeson to play the badass yet again.  I have absolutely no problem with that.  I’m assuming the franchise can continue if future kidnapping victims include Mills’ cousin, gardener, paperboy, the guy he met at the supermarket that one time, and so forth.  Finally, Taken 2 looks to continue the series’ message that foreign countries are the worst places affluent white people can go.  Just visit Orlando, Florida.  They have Disneyworld.

Hit the jump to check out the trailer.  The film also stars Maggie Grace and Rade Serbedzija.  Taken 2 opens October 5th. [Update: We've added the international poster.]

We’ve got a good selection of new posters to share with you today (in addition to these awesome examples from the upcoming Total Recall reboot).  Here’s what we have to offer:

• Taken 2 – The sequel to Pierre Morel’s Taken features the return of ex-CIA operative Bryan Mills (Liam Neeson) who finds himself on the wrong end of a kidnapping.  Taken 2 opens October 5th.
• Savages – Oliver Stone’s newest film stars Taylor Kitsch and Aaron Johnson as two marijuana dealers who must rescue their shared girlfriend (Blake Lively) from Mexican cartel runners (Salma Hayek and Benicio Del Toro). Savages opens July 6th.
• Magic Mike – Based on his real-life experience as a male stripper, Magic Mike follows Channing Tatum, Matthew McConaughey, Alex Pettyfer, Joe Manganiello and more through their daily (and nightly) exploits.  Magic Mike opens June 29th.
• Won’t Back Down – Based on a true story of the fight to reform urban education, Won’t Back Down stars Maggie Gyllenhaal and Viola Davis.  The film opens September 28th.

Hit the jump to check out the posters.

Luc Besson’s new sci-fi thriller, Lockout, is a fun and exciting ride set in the not too distant future.  Maggie Grace plays first daughter Emilie Warnock who is leading a humanitarian mission to MS One, an experimental prison in space. When a violent intergalactic mutiny unexpectedly sets loose 500 of Earth’s most dangerous psychotic criminals, President Warnock sends in the falsely convicted Agent Snow (Guy Pearce) to rescue her in exchange for his freedom. Living up to his irreverent reputation, Snow pushes all of Emilie’s buttons, but Emilie proves she can give as good as she gets and together they make a formidable team.

At the press day for Lockout, we sat down with Grace at a roundtable interview to talk about what attracted her to the role of Emilie.  She told us why she loves her action films served up with humor and how she enjoyed taking on the physically demanding role that involved sophisticated action scenes and a combination of stunts, combats and wire-work.  She discussed her training with stunt coordinator Patrick Cauderlier, her fun relationship on set with Pearce and their collaboration on the film’s Casablanca-inspired final scene, and why running in spacesuits presented some unusual challenges.   Grace also talked about her upcoming projects: Twilight: Breaking Dawn 2, Taken 2 and Decoding Annie Parker, plus why she’d like to do a romantic comedy.

Newbie distributor Open Road Films has claimed its first number one opening with the wolf vs. man thriller The Grey.  From 3,185 locations, The Grey took in an estimated $20 million, or well above the mid-teens that was projected.  Second place was claimed by Underworld Awakening, pushing the adaptation of Janet Evanovich’s bestselling novel, One For the Money, into third.