“SNIPER” KILLS AGAIN

For the second consecutive weekend, box-office analysts struggled to keep American Sniper in their sights. Last weekend, the movie earned nearly twice what the pundits had predicted — $89.3 million; this weekend it earned nearly half again as much — around $64.4 million versus the predicted $45 million, according to studio estimates. Coming in a distant second was the Jennifer Lopez starrer The Boy Next Door with about $15 million — at the low end of expectations. (Still, not bad for a film that reportedly cost just $4 million to produce). As forecast, Johnny Depp added another dud to his recent collection as his comedy Mortdecai tanked with about $4 million. And the George Lucas-backed animated musical Strange Magic saw numerous empty or near-empty theaters (Disney booked it into 3,020 of them) as it brought in just $5.5 million.

TheWrap.com: ‘American Sniper’ Soars to Super $64 Million in 2nd Week at Box OfficeVariety: Box Office: ‘American Sniper’ Tops With $64.4 Million, ‘Mortdecai’ Flops