Flight Risk, with Mark Wahlberg and helmed by Mel Gibson, grossed $950K in previews. It's eyeing an $11M opening for No. 1, Lionsgate's second YTD.

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.

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.

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 with a modest $12 million, according to studio estimates Sunday.

Lionsgate’s advertising campaign for “Flight Risk” credits its latest film to “the award-winning director of ‘Braveheart,’ ‘Apocalypto’ and ‘Hacksaw Ridge’,” which seems a circumspect way of recognizing Mel Gibson as its helmer.

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.

Mark Wahlberg stars in the action-thriller, which marks the first film Gibson has directed in nearly a decade.

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

Flight Risk,” an action thriller directed by Mel Gibson and starring Mark Wahlberg as a balding, unhinged pilot, landed in first place with $12 million from 3,161 North American theaters in its opening weekend.