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Weekend Box Office: ‘American Sniper’ Blows Past Competition For Second Straight Weekend

DERRIK J. LANG, AP Entertainment Writer

LOS ANGELES (AP) – “American Sniper” hit the mark with moviegoers again.

The Navy SEAL drama starring Bradley Cooper topped the box office for a second weekend in a row with $ 64.4 million, according to studio estimates Sunday. The total haul for the Warner Bros. film now stands at $ 200.1 million.

The Universal thriller “The Boy Next Door” featuring Jennifer Lopez as a teacher who engages in an affair with a younger man debuted in second place with $ 15 million.

The weekend’s other major new releases weren’t even in the neighborhood of “The Boy Next Door.”

The animated fantasy “Strange Magic” opened in a distant seventh place with $ 5.5 million, while the Johnny Depp dud “Mortdecai” flopped in ninth place with $ 4.1 million.

John Wayne
Starring in over 140 films, Wayne is one of the greatest American actors and arguably the toughest. Typecast as the rugged, heroic cowboy in films like “The Searchers” and “Rio Bravo,” Wayne was cemented in pop culture as the face of the movie Western — though, his toughness was not limited to the screen. He reportedly once knocked out legendary director John Huston on set, and he wasn’t afraid of Frank Sinatra either.