America is clearly going nuts over American Sniper, which held onto first place for a second-straight weekend. The war pic, though, held on incredibly for a movie that debuted with as much as it did. Sniper was down just 27% to $64.4 million, and has already amassed a huge $200.1 million in just 10 days. That was the 8th-biggest second weekend ever for a movie in history, behind four superhero movies, Avatar, Shrek 2 and The Hunger Games: Catching Fire. Especially considering this is a war movie and it opened to $89 million, this is truly an amazing hold. Sniper is playing more like an Oscar movie (but those usually have lower grosses), and seems well-positioned to play until at least the weekend of the ceremony (four weeks from now). This will end up on top next weekend as well (barring an unexpected breakout from Project Almanac), and may end up past $300 million stateside. Whether or not this will boost this film's chances to win Best Picture is currently uncertain.The biggest new release, as expected, was The Boy Next Door. The Jennifer Lopez flick did do fairly good business, opening to $15 million, for a per-venue average of a decent $5,765. That was in line with expectations, and is about average as far as Lopez is concerned. It matches some of her earlier movies such as The Back-Up Plan and Enough. The movie only had a $4 million price tag, so it should be a success for distributor Universal regardless of how it holds from here. Reviews were atrocious while the CinemaScore was a "B-".
Repeating in third place (for three-day weekends) is Paddington, which held onto a solid chunk of its audience. The family pic fell 35% to $12.4 million, for a solid $40.1 million gross in 10 days. That's in line with The Nut Job through the same point. Paddington will have one more weekend with family audiences before The Spongebob Movie: Sponge out of Water arrives February 6.
The Wedding Ringer slid a couple of spots and was down 44% to $11.6 million, for a 10-day pick-up of a similar $39.7 million. That's a bit better of a hold than Ride Along, but that one had about double the gross through the same point. Ringer has very little to no competition in the next several weeks, which should allow it to stabilize more in the future.
Taken 3 couldn't stabilize, and fell another 48% to $7.6 million, as Liam Neeson's final installment of the hit trilogy is making a fast exit. 3 is at $76.1 million in 17 days and is now unlikely to reach $100 million. Meanwhile, Oscar contender The Imitation Game could seriously be in contention for that milestone. Benedict Cumberbatch's flick actually inched up 5% to $7.1 million, expanding to just over 2,000 locations. Remaining in sixth place for three straight weeks, Game has earned $60.6 million in 63 days and should play until the Oscars.
Debuting in seventh place with weak results, as expected, was George Lucas-inspired animated film Strange Magic. The odd fairy tale twist pulled in $5.5 million, for a per-venue average of an anemic $1,832 (7th worst ever for a movie in over 3,000 locations). While decently-marketed, this movie was scheduled a little bit too late (Disney announced the date in October), and just didn't look incredibly-appealing for families. Plus Paddington already was taking in family audiences. In the end, Strange Magic can only boast it opened better than last year's flop Legends of Oz: Dorothy's Return as well as 2011's Hoodwinked Too! Hood vs. Evil. In the end, with bad reviews and a "B-" CinemaScore, this probably will end up around $15 million.Estimated just $30,000 below it, Best Picture contender Selma was down 37% to $5.5 million, for a decent $39.2 million in one month of release (3 weeks wide, 5 since limited). Selma should stabilize a bit better as we get closer to the Oscars, but probably won't finish much higher than $50-55 million.
All the way down in ninth place was the last wide release. Johnny Depp's latest weird encounter Mortdecai, which flopped with just $4.1 million, for a per-venue average of a terrible $1,558. That's about half of what anyone expected. But for Depp, this is a new low for him, as it didn't even earn half of what notorious flop Transcendence did over its first weekend. Look for this to fade fast as this earned bad reviews and just a "C+" CinemaScore. Distributor Lionsgate produced it for $60 million.
Rounding out the Top 10 in its fifth weekend was Into the Woods, which was off 43% to $3.9 million. The musical adaptation has picked up a fairly solid $121.5 million in one month of release and should add another $10 million before its done. Overseas results are decent, but unspectacular.
