As Sniper continued its chokehold over the box office, two wide releases failed to generate much excitement and flopped. Strange Magic, a poorly-marketed musical from Disney and producer George Lucas, stumbled into seventh place, earning just $5.5 million. With direct competition from Paddington and almost no hype surrounding the kid-aimed film, it unsurprisingly had the seventh-worst opening for a film that was released in more than 3,000 cinemas.
Nevertheless, the news was worse for Mortdecai, the critically-reviled comedy starring Johnny Depp and Gwyneth Paltrow. It could only manage a ninth-place debut, earning a pitiful $4.1 million. The $60 million comedy could make up some ground overseas, where Depp is still a big star. However, apart from franchises, the actor is seeing some of the poorest starts of his career in North America. Mortdecai marks the worst opening for Depp since The Astronaut’s Wife, which opened to $4 million in August 1999.
On the bright side, Oscar-nominated films that don’t star Bradley Cooper and a noticeably inhuman baby all saw good gains in theaters this weekend. The Imitation Game continued to add theaters and jumped 5% to make another $7.1 million. The biopic has made $60.6 million so far, and is the second highest grosser among the eight nominees. Selma dropped 37% – a good fall considering that it was MLK weekend in the last frame – and earned $5.5 million. Total is $39.2 million.
Further down the chart, PGA Best Picture winner Birdman, The Theory of Everything and Whiplash all added theaters and saw boosts from last weekend. The totals for those three contenders are $30.9 million for Birdman, $29.1 million for The Theory of Everything and $7.6 million for Whiplash.
Here are the numbers for the Top 10 films at the North American box office for the weekend of January 23 through 25, 2015:
1. American Sniper – $64.4 million ($200.1 million total)
2. The Boy Next Door – $15 million (NEW)
3. Paddington – $12.4 million ($40.1 million total)
4. The Wedding Ringer – $11.6 million ($39.7 million total)
5. Taken 3 – $7.6 million ($76.1 million total)
6. The Imitation Game – $7.1 million ($60.6 million total)
7. Strange Magic – $5.5 million (NEW)
8. Selma – $5.5 million ($39.2 million total)
9. Mortdecai – $4.1 million (NEW)
10. Into the Woods – $3.9 million ($121.5 million total)
NOTE: These numbers are weekend estimates based on Friday and Saturday’s estimated takes. Actual numbers for the three-day weekend are reported on Monday afternoon.