Not even the Super Bowl could stand in the way of the American Sniper freight train. The Clint Eastwood/Bradley Cooper war drama earned $31.8M for a $248M domestic total. If these numbers hold that will make it the highest-grossing film ever on a Super Bowl weekend, surpassing....rather unbelievably...the Hanna Montana/Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds concert movie in 2008. This is what they mean by there being no such thing as bad publicity. The controversial film has been criticized for its pro-war stance (although some disagree with that) and questionable depiction of sniper Chris Kyle, but the film still has managed to become an Academy Awards favorite for Best Actor and Best Picture.
2. Paddington- $8.5M/$50.5M
Closing in on $200M worldwide. That buys a lot of marmalade sandwiches.
3. Project Almanac- $8.5M
It's kind of ironic that a time travel film like Project Almanac got bumped around the calendar so much, but finally it opened this weekend and the results were pretty mediocre. The Michael Baby-produced film opened to $8.5M, which isn't bad considering the $12M price tag. It still ranks pretty low given the success we've seen from other low-budget found footage flicks geared at teen audiences, suggesting the marketing campaign was pretty terrible....which it was.
4. Black or White- $6.4M
Also opening this week was the interracial drama, Black or White, the latest lousy attempt by Kevin Costner to mount some form of a comeback. This isn't the Costneraissance, people, and pretty much every film he's done has been a dud. Black or White probably didn't cost much but it's proven to be polarizing for its...er, less than positive portrayal of African-Americans. Director Mike Binder will tell you otherwise, but this isn't the kind of movie that can withstand having a large portion of its audience stay away.
5. The Boy Next Door- $6M/$24.6M
6. The Wedding Ringer- $5.7M/$48.1M
7. The Imitation Game- $5.1M/$67.9M
8. Taken 3- $3.6M/$81.3M
9. Strange Magic- $3.4M/$9.8M
10. The Loft- $2.8M
Another film that got kicked around the schedule was The Loft, which was filmed three years ago and was supposed to come out last summer before getting dumped into this slot. The thriller has a pretty sweet cast of recognizable leads that can't draw money: Karl Urban, Matthias Schoenaerts, Wentworth Miller, James Marsden, and Modern Family's Eric Stonestreet, and it has them as a bunch of married men who discover a dead woman in their secret loft. Sound fun?
