Taken Returns as a Streaming Hit After Launching an Action Franchise - MCE Notices | California State Portal

Bryan Mills is back for another round, as Liam Neeson’s most iconic action movie returns to the streaming charts. Eighteen years after launching a franchise, Taken is back on the rise.

The 2008 action-thriller is lighting up Paramount+’s streaming charts. According to FlixPatrol, Taken is currently the platform’s No. 4 most-streamed movie in the United States. It took only one day for the movie to climb this high, as it was added to Paramount’s catalogue on June 11. It is only beaten out by Homefront, An Unfinished Life, and Scream 7.

Taken Is One of the Biggest Action Franchises in the World

Even almost twenty years after its first hit theaters, Taken remains one of the most iconic action movies of all time. It stars Liam Neeson as Bryan Mills, who must rescue his daughter (Maggie Grace) from human traffickers after she is kidnapped in Europe. The 2008 film was a surprise hit and ended up launching a franchise.

After pulling over $226 million at the worldwide box office against a meager budget of only $25 million, it was inevitable that Taken would get a sequel. Taken 2 outperformed its predecessor with a $376 million haul. The third and final film, Taken 3, came out in 2015, earning $326 million. All three films were wildly financially successful, even if critics weren’t all fond of them.

More recently, Taken spawned a spin-off television series starring Clive Stanton as a young Bryan Mills. The series launched in 2017 to largely negative reviews and was cancelled after only two seasons.

Will There Ever Be More Taken Films?

Image via 20th Century Fox

The movie side of the Taken franchise has been dormant for over a decade now, with no indication that there will ever be a fourth. In the years since Taken 3, however, Liam Neeson has starred in a myriad of similar films, from Ice Road to Run All Night. If audiences are interested in seeing him play essentially the same character as Bryan Mills in similar situations, there is no shortage of Taken clones to enjoy.

However, the age of the Taken ripoff is rapidly giving way to a new type of action film. While Taken clones dominated the action scene for much of the late 2000s and early 2010s, they are beginning to be replaced by the John Wick ripoff. These tend to be higher-level action films that include some gimmick, from a man who feels no pain (Novocaine) to the mere idea of Bob Odenkirk in an action role (Nobody). Thus, it seems like Taken is slowly fading from its spot in the action genre spotlight.

Taken is available to stream on Paramount+.