ABC/GettyLiam Neeson’s new film Cold Pursuit is currently number three at the US box office and has taken $3.6 million on its first day during opening weekend.
Industry experts are anticipating the film will easily hit the $10 million mark by the end of the weekend.
The success of the film so far has come as a surprise for some, who expected Neeson’s controversial comments during the promotion of the film to damage the impact the film would have at the box office.
You can watch the trailer here:
Neeson made headlines earlier this month when comments he made to the press about an incident from his past sparked controversy.
The 66-year-old was being interviewed by the Independent, when he told the story of a friend of his who was apparently raped.
He said:
She handled the situation of the rape in the most extraordinary way. But my immediate reaction was I asked, did she know who it was? No. What colour were they? She said it was a black person.
I went up and down areas with a cosh, hoping I’d be… approached by somebody. I’m ashamed to say that, and I did it for maybe a week – hoping some [Neeson gestures air quotes with his fingers] ‘black bastard’ would come out of a pub and have a go at me about something, you know? So that I could kill him.
ABCHe continued:
It was horrible, horrible, when I think back, that I did that. And I’ve never admitted that, and I’m saying it to a journalist.
It’s awful. But I did learn a lesson from it, when I eventually thought, ‘What the fuck are you doing’, you know? I understand that need for revenge, but it just leads to more revenge, to more killing and more killing.
Appearing on Good Morning America shortly after the initial interview, Neeson tried to explain and clarify his remarks further.
Asked whether he would have had the same reaction ‘with a white man’, he said:
If she’d have said a Brit, a Scot, a Lithuanian, I would have reacted the same. I was trying to show honour and stand up for my friend in this medieval fashion.
I’m a fairly intelligent guy and that’s why it shocked me. I did want to lash out because my friend was brutally raped. It’s a learning curve.
Cold Pursuit is out now in the US, and out in the UK on February 22.
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Charlie Cocksedge is a journalist and sub-editor at UNILAD. He graduated from the University of Manchester with an MA in Creative Writing, where he learnt how to write in the third person, before getting his NCTJ. His work has also appeared in such places as The Guardian, PN Review and the bin.