Pamela McClintock of THR:
Marking another major win for Liam Neeson's career as an elder action star, Non-Stop topped the North American box office with a $30 million debut.
Among Neeson's recent action-thrillers, that's the best showing outside of Taken 2, which opened to $49.5 million in 2012.
Universal's Non-Stop is also a needed win for Joel Silver's Silver Pictures, which produced the star-studded movie, whose high-brow ensemble cast includes Oscar best actress nominee Lupita Nyong'o, Julianne Moore, Downton Abbey's Michelle Dockery and House of Card's Corey Stoll.
Directed by Jaume Collet-Serra, Non-Stop was all the more impressive for drawing younger moviegoers, with 35 percent of ticket buyers under the age of 25. Females made up 51 percent of the overall audience, which delivered the film an A- CinemaScore.
Non-Stop, starring Neeson as U.S. air marshall who gets into serious trouble on a transatlantic flight from New York to London, is the first Silver Pictures released by Universal per its new deal with Silver, who previously had a longtime deal with Warner Bros.
The weekend's other new offering, the Christian film Son of God, was also a winner. The 20th Century Fox release debuted to $26.6 million, one of the best showings for a strictly faith-based film.
Mark Burnett and Roma Downey's Son of God, chronicling the life of Jesus Christ, is an unusual offering in that it was adapted from their hit television miniseries The Bible (deleted scenes from the miniseries were also featured).
Also earning an A- CinemaScore, Son of God amassed more than $4 million in advance ticket sales, thanks to heavy interest from churches and religious organizations that set group outings and theater take-overs.
The film opens exactly a decade after Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ became an instant hit, opening to a massive $83.8 million on its way to earning $612 million worldwide. Son of God, lacking the controversy that Passion of the Christ sparked, wasn't expected to match those numbers.
Son of God is the first in a slew of biblical and faith-based films set for 2014. On March 28, Paramount debuts Darren Aronofsky's tentpole Noah. The studio will play a trailer of Noah before Son of God.
Also hoping to make a splash over the weekend was an R-rated, extended cut of Paramount's Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues. The offering did a so-so $1.3 million to come in No. 14. All in, the sequel has earned $126.5 million domestically.
Elsewhere, Warner Bros. and Village Roadshow Pictures' The Lego Movie fell to No. 3 after ruling the domestic box office for three consecutive weekends, falling a slim 33 percent to $21 million and crossing the $200 million mark domestically (its total through Sunday is an estimated $209.3 million).
George Clooney's The Monuments Men remained strong, grossing $5 million to come in No. 4 and ending Sunday with a domestic total of $65.7 million.
Rounding out the top five was Kevin Costner's spy thriller 3 Days to Kill. Facing formidable competition from Non-Stop, the pic plunged 60 percent in its second weekend, grossing $4.9 million for a domestic total of $20.7 million. The movie is from Relativity Media and EuropaCorp.
Next Up: The preparations for battle are over--behold "300: Rise Of An Empire"; The classic cartoon gets a CG upgrade--welcome back "Mr. Peabody & Sherman"
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