Sniper on target for fifth week

Gwyneth Paltrow and Johnny Depp star in Mortdecai. The film finished in ninth place at last weekend’s box office and made $4.2 million.
Gwyneth Paltrow and Johnny Depp star in Mortdecai. The film finished in ninth place at last weekend’s box office and made $4.2 million.

LOS ANGELES -- American Sniper held down its No. 1 spot and crossed the $200 million mark at the domestic box office last weekend, surpassing three new releases including the Johnny Depp film Mortdecai, which proved to be a dud.

Propelled by a strong Friday night, American Sniper added an estimated $64.6 million in U.S. and Canadian theaters in its fifth weekend, raising its cumulative domestic total to $200.4 million. The film's weekend ticket sales fell just 28 percent, making it one of the best holds for such a high-grossing movie.

American Sniper had the third-highest-grossing January weekend ever, behind only the $68.5 million third-weekend haul for Avatar in January 2010 and the first weekend of wide release for Sniper.

The Clint Eastwood-directed war drama, which shattered several box-office records and surpassed tracking expectations over the busy four-day Martin Luther King Jr. weekend, cost Warner Bros. and Village Roadshow about $58 million to make. Adapted from the Chris Kyle autobiography of the same name, the film follows the story of Kyle (Bradley Cooper), a Navy SEAL known as the most lethal sniper in American history.

Coming in at second for the weekend: The Boy Next Door, which met expectations with a solid $15 million debut.

The psychological thriller follows Jennifer Lopez as a teacher who is seduced by a teenager (Ryan Guzman). Made for just $4 million, it is the latest micro-budget collaboration from Universal and Blumhouse Productions, following The Purge franchise and Ouija.

"Lopez's film made almost four times the $4 million budget in the first weekend," said Nicholas Carpou, Universal's head of domestic distribution. "It's great for us."

As tracking suggested, The Boy Next Door played strongly with women and Hispanics. An estimated 45 percent of moviegoers were Hispanic and 71 percent were female. About 60 percent of audiences were 25 or older. According to Universal's exit polls, 71 percent of the audience said Lopez was the main reason for seeing the film.

"Its strong female appeal will provide excellent counterprogramming, especially with the [forthcoming] Super Bowl," Carpou said.

In third place for the weekend was Weinstein Co.'s family film Paddington, which added $12. 3 million to its total $40 million domestic haul. The movie is based on the popular English children's literature character Paddington Bear, created by Michael Bond. It stars Hugh Bonneville, Sally Hawkins, Nicole Kidman and Ben Whishaw (who voices Paddington).

Family film Strange Magic fell short of its $10 million tracking forecast, launching in seventh with $5.5 million. The computer-animated film, which earned a B-minus grade on CinemaScore, is produced by Lucasfilm and distributed by Walt Disney Co. The voice cast for the goblin and elves film includes Kristen Chenoweth, Maya Rudolph and Evan Rachel Wood.

Meanwhile, fellow newcomer Mortdecai barely broke into the Top 10. The Johnny Depp-led film finished ninth with $4.2 million despite the Lionsgate-OddLot Entertainment release's star power.

Depp stars as the quirky art dealer and part-time rogue Charlie Mortdecai, who tries to recover a stolen painting. The film, based on the 1970s Kyril Bonfiglioli comic novels, co-stars Gwyneth Paltrow, Ewan McGregor and Olivia Munn.

The film received a generally poor reception from critics and a C-plus audience grade from CinemaScore.

Depp's latest films have been box-office duds. Transcendence premiered to a meager $11.2 million in April. The Lone Ranger famously tanked with a weak opening of $48.9 million in July 2013.

In limited release, the Jennifer Aniston-led film Cake opened to $919,179, in 482 locations, a per-screen average of $1,907.

The Jude Law film Black Sea debuted to $35,000 in five locations, or a per-screen average of $7,000.

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

The top 20 movies at U.S. and Canadian theaters Friday through Sunday, followed by distribution studio, gross, number of theater locations, average receipts per location, total gross and number of weeks in release, as compiled Monday by Rentrak.

  1. American Sniper, Warner Bros., $64,628,304, 3,705 locations, $17,444 average, $200,400,417, five weeks.

  2. The Boy Next Door, Universal, $14,910,105, 2,602 locations, $5,730 average, $14,910,105, one week.

  3. Paddington, Weinstein Co., $12,266,287, 3,355 locations, $3,656 average, $39,937,717, two weeks.

  4. The Wedding Ringer, Sony, $11,309,381, 3,003 locations, $3,766 average, $39,385,881, two weeks.

  5. Taken 3, 20th Century Fox, $7,412,597, 2,909 locations, $2,548 average, $75,863,651, three weeks.

  6. The Imitation Game, Weinstein Co., $6,946,076, 2,025 locations, $3,430 average, $60,452,357, nine weeks.

  7. Strange Magic, Disney, $5,504,441, 3,020 locations, $1,823 average, $5,504,441, one week.

  8. Selma, Paramount, $5,418,572, 2,046 locations, $2,648 average, $39,138,346, five weeks.

  9. Mortdecai, Lionsgate, $4,200,586, 2,648 locations, $1,586 average, $4,200,586, one week.

  10. Into the Woods, Disney, $3,884,471, 2,270 locations, $1,711 average, $121,493,132, five weeks.

  11. The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies, Warner Bros., $2,774,303, 1,444 locations, $1,921 average, $249,545,262, six weeks.

  12. Unbroken, Universal, $2,071,740, 1,606 locations, $1,290 average, $112,436,905, five weeks.

  13. Birdman, Fox Searchlight, $1,938,011, 833 locations, $2,327 average, $30,936,133, 15 weeks.

  14. Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb, 20th Century Fox, $1,785,807, 1,370 locations, $1,304 average, $108,597,968, six weeks.

  15. Blackhat, Universal, $1,667,975, 2,568 locations, $650 average, $7,097,125, two weeks.

  16. The Theory of Everything, Focus Features, $1,262,967, 858 locations, $1,472 average, $29,055,497, 12 weeks.

  17. The Hunger Games: Mockingjay -- Part 1, Lionsgate, $1,040,354, 676 locations, $1,539 average, $334,325,799, 10 weeks.

  18. Wild, Fox Searchlight, $957,209, 505 locations, $1,895 average, $34,719,789, eight weeks.

  19. Cake, Freestyle Releasing, $919,179, 482 locations, $1,907 average, $919,179, one week.

  20. Spare Parts, Lionsgate, $808,022, 424 locations, $1,906 average, $2,615,073, two weeks.

MovieStyle on 01/30/2015

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