CinemaNerdz

Box Office Weekend: American Sniper Takes Aim at January Record

Seth Paul
Box Office Weekend

While it spent three weeks in limited release, American Sniper benefited greatly from an increase in the number of theaters over the weekend, as well as Oscar buzz and good reviews. Its estimated $90.2 million weekend is a box office record for January, and nothing else even came close. Not to say the competition fared poorly in comparison to their own goals…The Wedding Ringer was not well received by critics, but the Kevin Hart/Josh Gad comedy earned an estimated $21 million and nearly covered its costs, while the estimated $19.3 million for Paddington might appear to be a rough start if not for a fine overseas performance (most of it from the United Kingdom, where the Paddington character originated) and nearly unanimous critical praise. Still, the unreported budget is a little disconcerting for a film seemingly doing so well.

Taken 3 and its poor critical reception may be showing its wear, but the estimated $14.1 million this weekend has more than done its job, ensuring worldwide profitability even if it is the lowest earning entry in the Liam Neeson franchise (if $160.5 million can be considered low earnings). Selma, on the other hand, which has been receiving as much praise as Paddington, went from limited to wide release like American Sniper, but has seen earnings closer to The Wedding Ringer with an estimated $8.3 million this weekend bringing its four week domestic total to $26 million. The Imitation Game found itself somewhere in between, an estimated $7.2 million likely making the biopic a success even with an unreleased budget…and even if neither film is a smash success like American Sniper, all three films have gotten Oscar nods.

The bottom four of the list are both the most successful films in the top ten and the least successful. At an estimated $6.5 million and $4.3 million, Into the Woods and Unbroken, respectively, are well into the $100 million arena, while an estimated $4.9 million puts The Hobbit: The Battle of Five Armies into excellent footing with $244.5 million domestic earnings. Unfortunately, not much can be said of the abysmal performance of Blackhat. Debuting this week at the bottom of the top ten, the new Chris Hemsworth thriller not only got poor reviews, but can practically claim bomb status with an estimated $4 million. With a $70 million budget and no foreign box office to speak of, it has little to look forward to.

Weekend Box Office (January 16th – 19th)

  1. American Sniper…$90.2 million
  2. The Wedding Ringer…$21 million
  3. Paddington…$19.3 million
  4. Taken 3…$14.1 million
  5. Selma…$8.3 million
  6. The Imitation Game…$7.2 million
  7. Into the Woods…$6.5 million
  8. The Hobbit: The Battle of Five Armies…$4.9 million
  9. Unbroken…$4.3 million
  10. Blackhat…$4 million

Seth Paul

When not failing to write novels and screenplays, box-office guru Seth writes humorous comedy tracks for films under the name "The One Man Band" that can be found at Rifftrax.com. Although, he has recently succeeded in writing the novella "Jack Alan and the Case of the Not-Exactly Rocket Scientists," available as an eBook on Amazon. He is also the English voice of Zak in "Zak McKracken: Between Time and Space."
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