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

Mel Gibson clearly brought energy to the "Flight Risk" set as director ... emanating the intensity of his iconic character William Wallace in a promo pushing his newest film -- face paint and all.

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.

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.

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

But despite the turbulence, Mel Gibson’s “Flight Risk” managed to open No. 1 at the box office with a modest $12 million, according to studio estimates Sunday. On a quiet weekend, even for the typically frigid movie-going month of January,

Mark Wahlberg stars in the genre pic, 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.

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,