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Taken was another such movie. And like Cloverfield it was a steppingstone movie for an artist. It’s just, in this case, the artist was already well-established in other genres. What Taken amounted to was a compass suddenly pointing in a whole new direction.
How Did Taken Mark a Shift in Liam Neeson’s Career Trajectory?
In terms of flat number readings, Taken took home $226.8 million against a $25 million price tag. It was a massive hit. What’s even more surprising, and a testament to Neeson’s worldwide appeal, is that it was essentially a French film, not an American film, and it did better in the U.S. than it did anywhere else. That’s something of a rarity. Now, of course, the movie is in the English language, but it was directed, written, and produced by French artists and funded by French companies.
Yet its “particular set of skills” trailer really went over with audiences. Interest was piqued leading up to release and, on the final January weekend of 2009, it made $24.7 million. Better yet, all the way through February and March it experienced marginal drops and remained a wide release.
Neeson was not entirely unfamiliar with actioners prior to this point. Excalibur, Krull, The Bounty, The Mission, The Dead Pool, Next of Kin, Darkman, Rob Roy, Star Wars: The Phantom Menace, Gangs of New York, Kingdom of Heaven, Batman Begins, Seraphim Falls, these are all movies with action elements and, often, Neeson was participating in their set-pieces. But it was with Taken he became a bonafide action star.
