Controversial Clint Eastwood drama American Sniper has topped the US box office with another $64.4m (£43m) in its second week on wide release, while Johnny Depp comedy Mortdecai suffered the actor’s most disastrous debut in more than a decade.
Starring Bradley Cooper as the deadliest gunman in US military history, real-life Navy Seal Chris Kyle, American Sniper has now taken $200m in North America. It is on course to become the highest-grossing war film of all time, surpassing the $216.5m taken in 1998 by Steven Spielberg’s Saving Private Ryan, over the coming week.
Jennifer Lopez’s low-budget psychological erotic thriller The Boy Next Door opened in second place, with $15m on debut against costs of just $4m. Rob Cohen’s poorly reviewed film stars Lopez as a newly separated high-school teacher who encourages the attentions of the handsome new arrival in the neighbourhood until he turns out to be a bad egg.
Paddington, Paul King’s star-studded adaptation of the Michael Bond novels about an intelligent bear with a penchant for marmalade, landed in third place with another $12.3m. The comedy, starring Hugh Bonneville, Sally Hawkins, Julie Walters, Jim Broadbent, Peter Capaldi, and Nicole Kidman, with Ben Whishaw as the voice of Paddington, continues to benefit from excellent reviews, and has now scored $40m from the North American box office.
The top five was rounded out by the Kevin Hart comedy The Wedding Ringer, with $11.6m in its second week for a total haul of $39.6m, and Liam Neeson action sequel Taken 3, with $7.6m in its third week for a total of $76m.
Elsewhere in the top 10, the George Lucas-produced animated fairytale fantasy Strange Magic landed at No 7 with a disappointing $5.5m in debut. The film, a riff on Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, has suffered from ghastly reviews.
Mortedecai fared even more grimly. Based on the Kyril Bonfiglioli novels about a dandyish and debonaire English art dealer, David Koepp’s comedy landed in ninth place on debut with just $4.1m. That counts as Depp’s worst opening in nearly 15 years.
Mortedecai has suffered from middling reviews. However, with a cast that also includes Gwyneth Paltrow, Ewan McGregor, Olivia Munn, Paul Bettany, and Jeff Goldblum, not to mention a $60m budget, it would have expected a far more impressive return. Meanwhile, Peter Jackson’s final Hobbit instalment, The Battle of the Five Armies, scored the highest-ever opening for a non-holiday three-day weekend in China, with $49.5m. The fantasy sequel’s total now stands at $866m worldwide.
North American box office 23-25 January
1. American Sniper: $64.3m, $200m
2. The Boy Next Door: $15m – new
3. Paddington: $12.3m, $40m
4. The Wedding Ringer: $11.6m, $39.6m
5. Taken 3: $7.6m, $76m
6: The Imitation Game: $7.1m, $60m
7: Strange Magic: $5.5m – new
8: Selma: $5.5m, $39.2m
9. Mortdecai: $4.125m – new
10: Into the Woods: $3.8m, $121.4m
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