Clint Eastwood is poised to have his best weekend as a director thanks to American Sniper. The Bradley Cooper-starring film got off to a fast start Thursday night.
Over 3,500 theaters began showing the film at 7 p.m. Thursday night and audiences turned out in droves to see the film, based on Chris Kyle’s bestselling book of the same name. Warner Bros. told Variety that the film scored $5.3 million.
The film already made $3.4 million from just four theaters over the past three weeks. It is expected to make around $50 million over the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday weekend.
Sniper scored six Oscar nominations on Thursday, including Best Picture and Best Actor for Cooper. However, Eastwood was not nominated for Best Director.
Michael Mann’s Blackhat only made $179,000 from Thursday night shows from 1,755 locations. It will be screened at 2,567 locations this weekend and will be lucky to make over $10 million for Universal.
Sony’s The Wedding Ringer, starring Kevin Hart and Josh Gad, made $800,000 from night showings. The film was shown at 2,354 locations and will be seen at just over 3,000 this weekend. It is expected to make north of $25 million.
image courtesy of INFphoto.com