"Taken 2" Wins the Weekend Box Office

Taken 2, the long-gestating sequel to the successful 2008 action thriller, repeated this past weekend as the movie box office champion with $22.5 million in ticket sales, according to information from Box Office Mojo. The film, distributed by News Corp. (Nasdaq: NWSA  ) unit Twentieth Century Fox, is in its second week of release and thus far has grossed nearly $87 million domestically, according to Box Office Mojo, and $132 million in foreign sales. The film's production budget is estimated at $45 million.

No. 2 over the weekend was a newly released film, the heavily promoted Argo, a suspenseful tale about a CIA operative staging an unusual rescue of Americans trapped in Iran just after that country's 1979 revolution. Directed by and starring Ben Affleck, a generally reliable box office draw, the film took in a little over $20 million on a budget of around $44.5 million, according to Box Office Mojo. Argo, distributed by Time Warner (NYSE: TWX  ) subsidiary Warner Bros., has not yet been released in foreign markets.

Just behind those two were horror film Sinister, distributed by Lions Gate's (NYSE: LGF  ) Summit Entertainment, and the top animation entry at the moment, Sony's (NYSE: SNE  ) light horror comedy Hotel Transylvania. The former has done particularly well considering its cost -- in opening weekend it made $18 million in ticket sales against a production budget of only $3 million.

Hotel Transylvania brought in $17 million over the weekend, according to Box Office Mojo