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Kim Hollis: I am riverdancing with happiness at these results as I type. I actually expected this to do quite well, so it was pretty near what I was imagining. Neeson has a fan base now and he doesn't really do anything to alienate those fans. If anything, he consciously embraces them. I agree with Matt that I'd like to see him break out from this "genre" (the genre being "Liam Neeson kicks bad guy ass") and back to films that stretch him creatively, but I think he has some interesting stuff coming up soon that will fit that bill.

David Mumpower: Liam Neeson: Action Star, is one of the greatest box office developments of my lifetime. What I find particularly noteworthy is that the films have all been generally well received by critics in addition to being passionately supported by his new fans, especially on home video. He has continued a continuous loop of positive reinforcement for his fans, save for maybe Taken 2 (which I personally liked). He has created an effect similar to Kevin Hart in that he keeps feeding his fanbase exactly what they want from him; ergo, he has created a level of trust.

The solid opening for Non-Stop is the latest example. Generally speaking, the idea of a 61-year-old man texting on a plane would be 14 levels of funny. With Neeson, it's an opportunity to kick ass and possibly do a full cavity search or two. He's like the ultimate TSA agent.

With regards to the movie maybe exceeding expectations a tick, I ascribe that to the cleverness of the concept. An unidentified killer executing passengers is not quite William Shatner in The Twilight Zone but it is that kind of idea. Oddly, the last time I remember it being done well was in Dracula 2000, a movie that had a tremendous first act before falling apart.

Kim Hollis: Son of God, a repurposing of The Bible miniseries from Mark Burnett and Roma Downey, debuted with $25.6 million this weekend. What do you think of this result?

Edwin Davies: Pretty much any result would have been good considering that 10 million people already watched this film when it aired on television. That could have limited the audience for the film, but clearly word got out to the Christian audience and enough of them were happy to pay for something they had already seen for free, regardless of how terrible and undeserving of a cinematic release it is. At the same time, roughly three million tickets were sold over the week, which suggests that most of that History Channel audience felt that they had already seen everything they needed to, or that Son of God wasn't appealing enough to break out in a big way (though this is still really good for a non-Mel Gibson Christian film). For found money, this is not too shabby.

Matthew Huntley: From a financial perspective, Son of God is a bona fide winner. It was able to cover its relatively modest production budget of $22 million in a single weekend, and that's if it didn't already prove previously profitable based on its television ratings from when it originally aired on the small screen. Anyway you look at it, it's a success.

I'm not terribly surprised by this, though, given the subject matter, and that it's been a whole decade since The Passion of the Christ stormed into theaters. Clearly, those wanting another iteration of the Jesus Christ story thought enough time had passed.

But how many time must this same story be told? I know there will always be an audience for it, and I've yet to see the film, so I can't fully judge it for its quality, but why can't stories of Jesus seek to challenge peoples' faith rather than simply reiterate it (i.e. tell them what they already believe or what they want to hear)? Martin Scorsese's The Last Temptation of Christ did this, and it was all the better for it. I say less movies about the traditional story of Jesus and more that put a creative spin on his life. I truly believe Jesus would appreciate that.

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