American Sniper expanded nationwide on Friday and earned a stunning $30.5 million. This the largest single day ever in January; the previous record belonged to Avatar, which took in $25.8 million on January 2nd, 2010. The Estimated weekend gross is $93.6 million, which is the 2nd biggest weekend to Guardians of the Galaxy for Bradley Cooper.
Blackhat opened in eighth place on Friday with $1.4 million. That's in line with Hemsworth brother Liam's Paranoia ($1.3 million), and is below past Martin Luther King, Jr. weekend bomb The Last Stand ($2 million). Blackhat is estimated at $4 million over the three-day weekend, which would be one of the worst debuts ever for a movie playing in at least 2,500 locations.