This weekend proved two things: 1) Liam Neeson’s first ‘Taken’ picture has a lot more fans than I ever realized, and 2) Parents are more likely to take their kids to an Adam Sandler family-friendly monster flick than one directed by Tim Burton.

By a landslide, ‘Taken 2‘ was #1. The sequel closed out its opening weekend with more than the twice the box office total of the original flick. In 2008, ‘Taken‘ opened to $24.7 million. This weekend, ‘Taken 2’ pulled in an impressive $50 million. Do I smell a trilogy in the works?

‘Hotel Transylvania‘ slipped 38%, but still landed in the #2 spot with $26.3 million, thus annihilating the competition from Tim Burton’s ‘Frankenweenie‘. Even with a $39 million budget, the backing power of Disney and the help of 3D ticket prices, Burton wasn’t able to successfully reanimate this playful tale. On 3,000 screens, ‘Frankenweenie’ finished in fifth place with only $11.5 million and a per-screen average less than half that of ‘Transylvania’.

Expanding to more than 2,700 screens in its second weekend, ‘Pitch Perfect‘ made another $14.7 million and finished in the #3 spot. Including this weekend and the totals from last week’s 300-screen release, the $17 million film has already made $21.6 million. In fourth place, ‘Looper‘ held relatively strong (for a science fiction flick), dropping 41% with $12.2 million. After 10 days, the $30 million picture has grossed $40 million.

On 110 screens, the indie dramedy ‘The Oranges‘ earned $180,000 and a $1,636 per-screen average. Lee Daniels’ salacious exploitation flick ‘The Paperboy‘ brought in a warm $110,000 on 11 screens, giving it a strong $10,000 per-screen average. Finally, on 15 screens, the Sundance horror flick ‘V/H/S‘ pulled in $40,000, or $2,667 per screen.

Top 10:

1. ‘Taken 2’ (Fox) – $50,000,000

2. ‘Hotel Transylvania’ (Sony) – $26,300,000

3. ‘Pitch Perfect’ (Universal) – $14,700,000

4. ‘Looper’ (TriStar) – $12,200,000

5. ‘Frankenweenie’ (Buena Vista) – $11,500,000

6. ‘End of Watch’ (Original Film) – $4,000,000

7. ‘Trouble with the Curve’ (Warner Bros.) – $3,870,000

8. ‘House at the End of the Street’ (Relativity) – $3,698,000

9. ‘The Master’ (Weinstein) – $1,840,000

10. ‘Finding Nemo 3D (Buena Vista) – $1,555,000