After spending three weeks holed up in just a handful of theaters, Clint Eastwood’s biopic of SEAL marksman Chris Kyle broke cover this weekend and scored a dead-center bull’s-eye, gunning its way to an estimated $90.2 million. It was enough to land American Sniper at No. 1 with a bullet, of course, and set an earnings record for the typically slow month of January (the previous record-holder, Ride Along, earned $41.5 million its opening weekend last year). Thanks to its flabbergasting take, Sniper now has bragging rights amongst the year’s crop of Best Picture nominees. It galloped past The Grand Budapest Hotel as the biggest money-maker in the Best Picture derby, and as Box Office Mojo noted, it’s made more than The Theory of Everything, Birdman, Boyhood and Whiplash combined.
Sniper’s strong performance spoiled the debuts from a host of newcomers.
The Wedding Ringer was the best of the freshmen. The new comedy starring Kevin Hart (a guy who seems to love January movies, given that he starred in the aforementioned Ride Along, too) was given $21 million by audiences, which was enough to slide it in front of the new family flick Paddington. The raincoat-wearing bear pocketed $19.3 million. Here’s to hoping he doesn’t splurge it all on marmalade.
Jostled by all the weekend’s newcomers, last week’s champ Taken 3 tumbled all the way to fourth place. Liam Neeson’s latest thriller took home a not-too-shabby $14.1 million. Oscar hopeful Selma closed out the Top Five with $8.3 million.
Final figures update: 1. American Sniper, $89.3 million; 2. The Wedding Ringer, $20.6 million; 3. Paddington, $19 million; 4. Taken 3, $14.7 million; 5. Selma, $8.8 million.
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