Liam Neeson's latest action thriller, The Mongoose, has been pulled from almost 1,000 movie theaters after a single weekend, leaving it in just 188 locations in North America.
The film, released by Samuel Goldwyn Films, opened on October 30 in 1,014 theaters and took in $464,421 over its first three days. That works out to roughly $458 per theater, one of the weakest averages of the 74-year-old actor's career and the lowest wide-release debut he has recorded. Exhibitors responded by dropping it from 826 locations before the second weekend.
The slide continued from there. In its second weekend, The Mongoose earned only $79,842, a decline of about 83 percent. Its domestic total now stands at roughly $777,000, a modest sum for a movie that began with a theatrical release of more than 1,000 screens.
Directed by Mark Vanselow, the movie follows Ryan "Fang" Flanagan, a war hero accused of a crime he did not commit. With little left to lose, he leads law enforcement on a televised cross-country car chase, helped by members of his former Special Forces battalion while a fascinated public roots for his escape. Neeson stars alongside Marisa Tomei, Ving Rhames and Michael Chiklis.
Critics have not been kind. The film holds an approval rating of about 30 percent on Rotten Tomatoes, with reviewers describing a familiar formula that adds little to the actor's long run of revenge-driven action pictures. The movie also began reaching digital platforms in some markets within days of its theatrical debut.
The result is the latest in a string of disappointments for Neeson in theaters. His other fall release this year, The Fix, opened in September and earned about $1.2 million in total at the domestic box office. Several of his recent thrillers, including The Marksman, Memory, Marlowe, Retribution and Absolution, also underperformed in theaters, even though films of this kind often find a second life on video on demand and streaming services.
That is a sharp contrast with the peak of his action career. The Commuter, released in 2018, grossed about $120 million worldwide, and the Taken series made him one of Hollywood's most reliable action stars. Today, the genre is leaving theaters faster than ever for home viewing.
The Mongoose is still playing in a small number of cinemas, and it is available to rent or buy digitally in selected markets.
