In its second weekend in nationwide release, American Sniper conquered the box office, earning $64.4 million for a domestic gross of $200 million. This makes the movie Clint Eastwood’s biggest financial success, trampling on Gran Torino’s yard and giving it the finger (then running away, terrified). Bradley Cooper’s giant shoulders and fake robot baby helped earn the film the esteemed titles of Top January Opening Weekend, beating out Ride Along, Cloverfield, and Taken 3, and Top Winter Opening Weekend, ahead of The Passion Of The Christ and The Lego Movie.

Standing in the window next door to American Sniper, about $50 million away, breathing heavily, was The Boy Next Door, which grossed $15 million in its debut weekend—about four times its low budget. This puts Jennifer Lopez’s sexy stalker movie at No. 24 in Box Office Mojo’s delightfully titled Thriller - Psycho/Stalker/Blank From Hell category, beneath Fatal Attraction, Sleeping With The Enemy, and the infamous Blank From Hell Beyonce movie Obsessed. Sexy stalking does sell, y’all. Get to know your neighbors!

The weekend’s two other new wide releases—Mortdecai and Strange Magic—debuted to both very bad reviews and very bad amounts of money. George Lucas’ “movie for girls” pulled in only $5.5 million, putting it at seventh place both in this weekend’s box office rankings and in the category of Worst Wide Openings since 1982, pulling in less money than Mary Kate and Ashley’s thought-provoking 2004 feature film New York Minute and Cameron Crowe’s We Bought A Zoo. Johnny Depp’s unfunny mustache jokes earned an even sadder $4.1 million, putting Mortdecai in ninth place. The movie marks Depp’s third flop in a row—following The Lone Ranger and Transcendence—which almost makes me feel bad for him, except he’s Johnny Depp, guys! He’ll be okay. He just needs to stop making shitty movies immediately. 

Jennifer Aniston’s shameless Oscar bid, Cake, debuted in limited release, making $1 million and a per-screen-average of $2,081. Had Aniston been nominated for an Oscar, this number likely would’ve been higher, but she’s fine, she’s totally fine, everybody’s totally fine about it. Jude Law’s adventure flick Black Sea opened in five theaters to earn $25,000 and an impressive $7,000 per-screen-average; Anne Hathaway’s gimmicky romance Song One opened in 27 theaters, earning a total of $23,800; Xavier Dolan’s raw mother/son story Mommy opened in four theaters and earned $21,000; Cold War-era hockey doc Red Army screened in three theaters and earned $20,100; and lush lesbian love story The Duke Of Burgundy screened in three theaters and earned $13,000. 

The rest of the top 10 was rounded out by movies that’ve already been in rotation for a few weeks. Paddington stayed in third place, adding 52 theaters and pulling in $12.4 million with its grubby little paws. The Wedding Ringer took its lazy slapstick from second to fourth place with a weekend gross of $11.6 million; Taken 3 moved from fourth to fifth and made $7.6 million; and The Imitation Game stuck its landing at sixth place, making $7.1 million. Selma moved from fifth to eight place, pulling in $5.5 million for a domestic gross of $39.2 million, and Into The Woods fell from seventh to 10th, making only $3.9 million for a total of $121.5 million. 

Elsewhere, in its second week of limited release, Still Alice added 26 screens for a total of 38, and made $10,816 per screen for a domestic gross of $715,000. Michael Mann’s Blackhat, also in its second week, has already fallen to 15th place, making only $1.6 million for a $7.1 million domestic gross. Sorry, Michael Mann. Maybe next time try focusing on a sexy stalker or a troubled sniper?

[Source: Box Office Mojo]