Clint Eastwood’s American Sniper continues to dominate the box office, scoring a staggering $64.4 million for its second weekend in theaters as a wide release.  Now it’s got a total of $200.1 million in the domestic bank making it the second highest grossing war movie in history.  Not accounting for inflation, it already surpassed Pearl Harbor’s $198.5 million grand total and it’s certainly on track to trump Saving Private Ryan’s $216.5 million domestic total as well.

 

The Boy Next Door didn’t get the greatest critical reception, but that didn’t stop the film from scoring a solid $5,765 per theater average and a weekend one total of $15 million, far surpassing the film’s minimal $4 million budget.  Mortdecai and Strange Magic’s opening totals, on the other hand, are right in line with their sour reviews.  Not counting Into the Woods, this is the fifth domestic stinker in a row for Johnny Depp following The Rum Diary, Dark Shadows, The Lone Ranger and Transcendence.  George Lucas doesn't have the greatest (non-Star Wars) recent track record either.  His 2012 release, Red Tails, took $18.8 million opening weekend, but only went on to accumulate a total of $50 million worldwide, failing to surpass its reported $58 million production budget.  We don't know how much Strange Magic cost him, but with that especially weak $5.5 million opening, I'd imagine he'll have a tough time getting into the black with this one as well.

As for the box office veterans, most are holding strong.  American Sniper’s 27.9% drop is nothing short of astounding after it blew everything away with last weekend’s record breaking numbers.  Paddington continues to perform well too, possibly somewhat due to the minimal interest in Strange Magic.  The Paul King-directed film only lost 34.7% of its opening profits to lock in $12.4 million and the third spot at the box office.

The Wedding Ringer comes in right behind with $11.6 million.  It’s certainly no Ride Along, but a total of $39.7 million after two weekends in theaters is a solid amount for an R-rated comedy with a reported $23 million production budget.  Things leveled out a bit for our fifth highest earner of the weekend, Taken 3.  As expected, it took a hefty 62.5% hit making the move from weekend one to two, but this time around, it got the percent change down to 48.4%, which isn’t half bad considering the film lost 685 theaters.  However, three weekends into Taken 2’s theatrical run, that film already had $105.8 million in the bank.  At this point, Taken 3 has just $76.1 million.

Next weekend could be another lukewarm one for the newcomers.  Black or White is only making its way into 1,500 theaters and The Loft is getting just 1,800, so, odds are, we won’t get big numbers from either.  The widest release goes to Paramount’s Project Almanac with 2,800 theaters.  The studio probably has its fingers crossed for a Chronicle or Project X-sized opening of about $21 or $22 million, but it seems more likely that Project Almanac will wind up somewhere between $15 and $18 million to start.