The thriller film, "Unknown", starring Liam Neeson has aced other films during its opening at a slow weekend, raking in an estimated $21.8 million with 89% of the audience, aged 25 and above and 54% of those over 50.

Dan Fellman, the president of domestic distribution for Warner Bros, the distributing outfit of the film, was all smiles at the turn of events for Neeson’s Unknown. It was earlier projected to grapple at the box office, compared to other films.

“I’m happy for Joel (Silver-producer) to have a breakout film. Dark Castle has struggled at the box office the past couple of years, and this helps turns things around,” Fellman was quoted as saying by Aceshowbiz.

He added, “We were up 32% on Saturday, which is a big jump for an adult movie. People really liked it”.

Topping the weekend chart at the box office came as a surprise because “I Am Number Four’ by Dream Works and Touchstone’s was the one predicted to edge other films at the opening over the weekend.

But the teen sci-fi film featuring Alex Pettyfer, Timothy Olyphant, Dianna Agron and Teresa Palmer collected more two-million dollar less than what’s earned by “Unknown”. The film said Aceshowbiz fell short of everyone’s expectations, with earnings calculated at $23 million. Not even the advertising strategy patterned after “Twilight” for boys could help the film edge over Uknown by Neeson.

But Chuck Viane, Disney’s worldwide president of distribution has remained positive about the initial turn out at the box office.

“It was an extremely competitive weekend”, Viane said, adding hopes that the ticket sales will be boosted up by moviegoers on Sunday and Monday, to see ‘how all the films play out’.

The weekend film chart also showed that the “No Strings Attached” film by Ashton Kutcher and Natalie Portman came in last among the top ten films at $3.1 million.