Mel Gibson's new action film "Flight Risk" has topped the North American box office, taking in an estimated $12 million on a slow winter weekend, industry analysts said Sunday.

Mel Gibson challenges himself to just make a normal potboiler with the Hitchcockian premise of Flight Risk. He's not up to it.

The premise is simple: Michelle Dockery plays U.S. Marshal Madolyn, tasked with transporting wiseass accountant Winston (Topher Grace) on a prop plane from Alaska to Seattle. Daryl (Mark Wahlberg), their shady pilot, is secretly working for the bad guys and tasked with killing Winston before he can testify. That’s it. That’s the setup.

"Flight Risk"—director Mel Gibson’s new action thriller starring Mark Wahlberg—is targeting a No. 1 debut at the weekend box office.

Despite a notable January slump, the box office still saw some promising contenders this weekend with director Mel Gibson’s action-thriller Flight Risk topping the charts. Although Gibson’s sixth directorial effort was generally panned by critics,

Critics lambasted it and audiences didn't grade it much better. But despite the turbulence, Mel Gibson's 'Flight Risk' managed to open No. 1 at the box office.

Mark Wahlberg stars in the action-thriller, which marks Gibson's first directorial effort in nearly a decade. Elsewhere, Steven Soderbergh's artsy haunted house thriller 'Presence' opened in 1,750 cinemas.