Box Office Report: ‘American Sniper’ Passes $200M; ‘Boy Next Door’ Snags $15M

Warner Bros.’ “American Sniper” continues to dominate the box office with an estimated $63.27 million this weekend, maintaining its first place status. The Clint Eastwood war drama starring Bradley Cooper as real-life sniper Chris Kyle has now surpassed the $200 million domestic mark. Wow! The film has certainly sparked a lot of controversy, but I think it’s one of the best war dramas ever made. Check out my review here.

“American Sniper” scored the eighth largest second weekend gross of all-time, and also landed the third largest January weekend gross of all-time (behind only the film’s performance last weekend and the third weekend performance of “Avatar” back in 2010). With $200.14 million just ten days after its wide release, “American Sniper” is currently running 64 percent ahead of the $122.32 million ten-day start of 2013’s “Gravity,” the out-of-this-world space drama starring George Clooney and Sandra Bullock.

“American Sniper” took in an estimated $5.8 million from IMAX locations this weekend, bringing the film’s IMAX total to $18.8 million — 9.4 percent of the film’s overall gross so far.

Meanwhile, Jennifer Lopez’ “The Boy Next Door” debuted in second place with an estimated $15 million. The film boasted a low production budget, which makes that number even more significant and fairly respectable for a stalker thriller. It opened 23 percent ahead of the $12.2 million start of 2010’s “The Back-Up Plan,” which also starred Lopez, and debuted just 12 percent below the $17.12 million debut of 2013’s “The Call,” a thriller starring Halle Berry.

The news wasn’t so great, however, for the weekend’s other two wide releases. “Strange Magic” debuted in seventh place with an estimated $5.53 million, and “Mortdecai,” Johnny Depp’s latest fiasco, landed in ninth place with $4.13 million. What is happening to Depp’s movie career? I’m so confused.

The super-cute family movie “Paddington” took third place this weekend with an estimated $12.39 million. Sony’s “The Wedding Ringer” followed in fourth with an estimated $11.6 million.

Here are all the domestic numbers for the Top 10 wide releases; weekend of Jan. 23 – 25, 2015:

1. American Sniper; $64,365,000 weekend; $200,137,113 total; Warner Bros.
2. The Boy Next Door; $15,000,000 weekend; $15,000,000 total; Universal
3. Paddington; $12,391,000 weekend; $40,062,430 total; Weinstein/Dimension
4. The Wedding Ringer; $11,600,000 weekend; $39,676,500 total; Sony/Screen Gems
5. Taken 3; $7,600,000 weekend; $76,051,054 total; Fox
6. The Imitation Game; $7,136,000 weekend; $60,642,281 total; Weinstein
7. Strange Magic; $5,534,000 weekend; $5,534,000 total; Disney
8. Selma; $5,500,000 weekend; $39,219,774 total; Paramount
9. Mortdecai; $4,125,000 weekend; $4,125,000 total; Lionsgate
10. Into the Woods; $3,886,000 weekend; $121,494,661 total; Disney