American Sniper continues to soar as Mortdecai bombs

Continuing its unprecedented run at the US box office, Clint Eastwood’s American Sniper continues to smash expectations and get many a bum on a seat.

To start its second weekend atop the US charts, Sniper took $18.3 million and if this pace continues, it could take its place amongst the biggest second weekends ever, despite numerous new releases bowing. It also ranks as the biggest second Friday for an R-rated film, beating the other highest of $13.7 million set by The Passion of the Christ, and was also much higher than a lot of last summer’s blockbusters, which maxed out around $12-$13 million.

Estimates for American Sniper now range around the $60 million for its second weekend in US cinemas, making it Clint Eastwood’s highest grossing film ever, and could quite easily be star Bradley Cooper’s biggest by the end of its run, with $154 million already under its belt.

In second place, The Boy Next Door opened to an estimated $5.7 million at 2,602 locations. Comedy The Wedding Ringer, starring Kevin Hart, Josh Gad and Kaley Cuoco-Sweeting, took third place with an estimated $3.3 million.

Paddington, a huge hit at the UK box office over Christmas, added $2.6 million for a $30.3 million total so far, with a second weekend in the $13 million range. Liam Neeson’s Taken 3 was fifth with $2.07 million, down 57% on last Friday, and has earned $70.5million in the third, and possibly final part of the franchise.

The biggest loser of the weekend was, once again, Johnny Depp. His new star vehicle, Mortdecai, opened in 2,648 cinemas but could only manage an 8th-placed finish on its opening day with a disastrous $1.4 million. Another in a long line of flops for the star, Mortdecai performed even worse than Depp’s little-seen The Rum Diary, which opened at around $1.8 million in 2011. It is a dismally poor opening for the film which has been heavily marketed in both the US and the UK, as well as having people like Ewan McGregor and Gwyneth Paltrow co-starring, and may only wind up with a hopeless $4 million on its whopping $60 million budget.