Original Coverage & Source Attribution: www.slashfilm.com
Samuel Goldwyn Films
Another year, another Liam Neeson action movie. What else is new? This time, it’s a police chase flick in the form of “The Mongoose.” Ever since “Taken” became a box office hit that led to Neeson’s unexpected action star makeover, the Oscar-nominated actor has been churning these pieces of genre fare out with regularity. His latest effort, however, failed to drum up much business.
“The Mongoose” opened to just $464,421 on 1,014 screens over the weekend, making for a terrible $458 per-screen average. It was duking it out with the badly reviewed horror comedy “Christmas at the Kringles,” which bombed with just $710,526 on just over 1,800 screens. Because Halloween fell on a Saturday, it was a lousy weekend for new releases, so Samuel Goldwyn Films decided to throw this one at the wall to see if it would stick. It didn’t.
Directed by Mark Vanselow, Neeson’s new actioner centers on Ryan “Fang” Flanagan (Neeson), a man who, having been accused of a crime he didn’t commit, leads law enforcement on a cross-country car chase with the help of his brothers in arms, all while the public roots for his getaway. The film’s cast also includes Marissa Tomei (“Spider-Man: No Way Home”), Ving Rhames (“Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning”), and Michael Chiklis (“The Shield”).
This is actually Leeson’s second action flick to come and go while hardly registering with the moviegoing public this fall, as “The Fix” also opened in theaters in September, making roughly $1.2 million domestically in total. The days of the “Taken” trilogy are indeed very far behind us, it seems.
Liam Neeson’s action movies still have value, but not as much as they once did
Samuel Goldwyn Films
Like many of Liam Neeson’s late career action movies, “The Mongoose” isn’t exactly a critical darling, having only earned a 30% approval rating among critics on Rotten Tomatoes at the time of writing. That being said, this one was undoubtedly financed with the understanding that if it can be made at a certain price point, it’ll find its audience on VOD/streaming.
Case in point, Neeson’s “Blacklight” somewhat inexplicably took over Prime Video’s streaming charts earlier this year, despite being considered one of the actor’s worst films in recent memory. Similarly, in late 2024, Netflix breathed new life into Neeson’s 2015 crime thriller “Run All Night.” This sort of thing happens pretty regularly. People really enjoy these movies, even if it’s more about enjoying them from the comfort of home. They may not be cinematic events, but they’re good library titles that generate streaming revenue.
It’s honestly been some time since one of Neeson’s action movies was an out-and-out hit. 2018’s “The Commuter” was like “Non-Stop” on a train and pulled in $120 million at the global box office. Ever since then, though, his films have tended to perform more like “The Mongoose.” Setting aside the Neeson vehicles that were hampered by the pandemic, “The Marksman,” “Blacklight,” “Memory,” “Marlowe,” “Retribution,” and “Absolution” are all real movies, yet each of them either disappointed or outright flopped at the box office.
We’re arguably far removed from Neeson’s best action movie “The Grey” or hidden gems like “A Walk Among the Tombstones.” His recent efforts have tended to follow a very basic formula, and while it may not sell tickets in theaters, it clearly makes money elsewhere within the Hollywood ecosystem.
“The Mongoose” is in theaters now.
