Clint Eastwood’s American Sniper opened wide over the holiday weekend, pulling in a record-breaking $90.2 million — more than twice the previous January opening-weekend record held by Ride Along ($41.5 million). Speaking of Kevin Hart, the indefatigable comic’s film The Wedding Ringer came in second with $21 million. The family-oriented Paddington came in third with $19.3 million in its opening weekend. Coming in fourth was Liam Neeson’s Taken 3 with $14 million, and the snubbed Selma rounded out the top five with $8.3 million. Meanwhile, Michael Mann’s cyberthriller Blackhat starring Chris Hemsworth opened in semi-wide release for a disappointing $4 million.
For weeks in limited release, American Sniper had the highest per-screen average and that fact remained true this weekend as well: The movie had a per-screen average of $25,374. The second best was Julianne Moore’s best chance at an Oscar, Still Alice, which debuted in limited release for a per-screen average of $17,667.