Thriller, Action | featured news

The Liam Neeson action pic grosses $50 million in North America and $55 million overseas; musical comedy "Pitch Perfect" turns in a solid $14.7 million domestically, while Tim Burton's "Frankenweenie" falters with $11.5 million.

Liam Neeson and ‘Taken 2” are looking at a $48 million weekend after blasting past their box office rivals Friday and rolling to a first-day total of $18.6 million. The gangbusters debut for Fox’s PG13-rated action sequel marks the second consecutive week a movie has broken out and lifted the box office into positive territory. If the weekend stays on pace, it will finish more than 30 percent ahead of last year, when “Real Steel” lead the way with a $27 million debut.

It's an action superstar reunion: Arnold Schwarzenegger is joining Sylvester Stallone for the thriller "The Tomb."

The drama "24" won't be ticking much longer on TV. Fox announced Friday that its action-packed real-time show starring Kiefer Sutherland as anti-terrorism agent Jack Bauer will wind down at the end of its current eighth season on May 24.

Sutherland said in a statement that the show's cast and crew "always wanted '24' to finish on a high note, so the decision to make the eighth season our last was one we all agreed upon." He also said he was looking forward to creating a film version of "24."

Paramount Pictures announced Tuesday that Cruise will be back in front of the camera for "Mission: Impossible IV," due in theaters over Memorial Day weekend in 2011. Cruise and "Mission: Impossible III" director J.J. Abrams previously agreed to produce a fourth movie in the action franchise. But it had not been known if Cruise would star again.

Lynette Rice: Insider confirms talks with a screenwriter; next move may hinge on Fox TV's decision on renewal.

Poor Jack Bauer. He's gone from saving the world to dozing off on a couch while his granddaughter watches cartoons. Still looking as though he's feeling some of the effects from his exposure to a bioweapon and the subsequent stem cell surgery, Bauer is hanging around New York with his daughter, Kim, and her milquetoast husband, who are getting ready to return to Los Angeles and want him to join them. Bauer seems to move a little slower and is unsuccessfully trying to convince himself that he's ready for life as a grandpa and, gasp, a desk jockey back in Los Angeles.

Today MySpace Movies exclusively debuts the restricted trailer for REPO MEN, starring Jude Law, Forest Whitaker and Liev Schreiber. Universal Pictures' futuristic action-thriller is in theaters on April 2, 2010 and directed by Miguel Sapochnik.

Roland Emmerich’s thriller about a global cataclysm opened at No. 1 with a higher-than-expected $65 million in ticket sales.