The 62-year-old actor earned more than 20 million USD for playing the main role in the third part of the action movie just released globally, “Taken 3”.

The above information was revealed by Deadline that this salary is nearly equal to the budget for the entire first film. In 2008, Liam Neeson received $1 million to participate in the movie Taken, whose revenue results were unknown.

After its release, the French action thriller with a budget of 25 million USD achieved a total revenue of 225 million USD. The film’s story is about a former FBI agent who is willing to sacrifice his life to find his kidnapped daughter.

The work is considered by many film critics to be one of the “must-see” action films of the second half of the first decade of the 21st century. Actor Liam Neeson left his mark with the name FBI agent Bryan Mills. with many breathtaking action scenes not inferior to Agent 007.

In 2012, producers launched the second season for Taken and invited Liam Neeson to continue playing the main role. According to Business Insider, the Irish star was hesitant at first but finally accepted after being offered a salary of more than $10 million.
The film project with a budget of 45 million USD continued to gross 376 million USD globally, making a big splash.

Currently, the 62-year-old actor once again plays the role of Bryan Mills in the third part, which is being released in North America, Europe and Asia.

Deadline said that Liam Neeson has “closed his acting contract for Taken 3 with a salary of 20 million USD, nearly equal to the 25 million USD for the entire budget in the first part”.

This number is calculated based on the success of the previous two parts and the successful estimate of the new part’s revenue. “This remuneration is equivalent to the profits that stars like Johnny Depp and Will Smith receive for blockbusters with budgets of more than $100 million,” The Huffington Post commented.

Thanks to the success of his role in Taken 2, actor Liam Neeson rose to seventh place on the list of “Highest-paid male actors” in 2014, according to Forbes statistics in June. This statistic is from June 2013 to June 2014 showed that actor Liam Neeson earned 36 million USD after one year.

However, Liam Neeson is not a rare star who has received large salaries in Hollywood. In 2012, actor Robert Downey Jr. once received $50 million in compensation for filming The Avengers, while other stars like Chris Evans or Chris Hemsworth only received $2-3 million for the same movie The Avengers

“From a medium-budget action movie, the Taken series surprised observers by becoming a money-making machine in Hollywood” – critic Borys Kit wrote in The Hollywood Reporter.

Along with Liam Neeson, Taken 2 director Olivier Megaton also directed the latest film. Taken 3 was released in Vietnam from January 9 with the Vietnamese title Taken 3: End, before launching in France on January 25.