Liam Neeson's character is looking for a gang of kidnappersLiam Neeson thriller Taken has ended the reign of comedy Paul Blart: Mall Cop at the top of the North American box office chart.
The CIA thriller made $24.6m (£17.3m) in its debut weekend, helping towards $1bn January takings for the first time in US cinema history.
Other new entries included The Uninvited, a remake of a South Korean thriller, at number three.
British Oscar hope Slumdog Millionaire was in sixth place.
The Mumbai-based film is moving into a wider release in the US, and has made a total of $67m (£47.1m) after 12 weeks in cinemas.
The movie's director, Danny Boyle, won top prize from the Director's Guild of America over the weekend.
Clint Eastwood's film Gran Torino, which was overlooked in the Oscar nominations, has now made more than $110m (£77.4m) to become the actor-director's highest-grossing film to date.
US box office returns in January were up more than 20% compared with the first month of 2008, while numbers of cinema-goers rose by 16%.
Paul Dergarabedian, president of box office analysts Media By Numbers, said: "I think people feel movies are a good value for their dollar. Going to a movie is a habit people aren't willing to break."
"This is exactly how you want to start a year," he added.
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