NEW YORK (TheBlaze/AP) — The young-adult thriller "The Maze Runner" raced to the box-office top spot with $32.5 million, sprinting past Liam Neeson's "A Walk Among the Tombstones" and taking the lead in the same weekend it evoked a powerful response from Glenn Beck.
In this image released by 20th Century Fox, from foreground left, Kaya Scoderlario, Dylan O’Brien, Aml Ameen and Jacob Latimore appear in a scene from "The Maze Runner." (AP Photo/20th Century Fox, Ben Rothstein)
"We saw Maze Runner," Beck wrote on Facebook Saturday night. "GREAT. INTENSE. FUN, WELL DONE AND SURPRISING IF YOU HAVENT READ IT. Big franchise here. I am going tomorrow to an old fashioned bookstore to buy the series."
According to studio estimates Sunday, Fox' "Maze Runner" easily outpaced the $13.1 million debut of Neeson's latest action film for Universal Studios. "The Maze Runner," adapted from James Dashner's series of science-fiction YA novels, is being launched as a new franchise, with a sequel already in the works.
The Warner Bros. dramedy "This Is Where I Leave You" came in third with $11.9 million. The Shawn Levy-directed film failed to be a big draw despite an A-list ensemble cast including Tina Fey, Jason Bateman and Jane Fonda.
This story has been updated.
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