Clint Eastwood’s war film held on to number one for the third consecutive weekend as an estimated $31.9m looks to have set a new record for the weekend and boosted the running total through Warner Bros to $248.9m.

If estimates are confirmed on Monday, American Sniper will knock Hannah Montana / Miley Cyrus: Best Of Both Worlds Concert Tour off its Super Bowl perch. That film set the record for the best score over a Super Bowl weekend with $31.1m in 2008.

Overall box office for the top 12 fell 38.5% against last weekend and gained 18.5% on Super Bowl weekend 2013.

StudioCanal’s Paddington has grossed $148m internationally and climbed one spot to number two in North America via TWC-Weinstein on $8.5m for $50.5m after three weekends. The worldwide haul stands at $198.5m.

Three new films took advantage of a typically uncompetitive Superbowl weekend and disappointed.

Paramount’s time travel adventure Project Almanac, which cost roughly $12m according to reports, arrived in third place on $8.5m from 2,893 venues.

The Mike Binder drama Black Or White starring Kevin Costner and Octavia Spencer opened in fourth place on $6.5m from 1,823, while the Karl Urban and James Marsden thriller The Loft debuted via Open Road in tenth place on $2.9m from 1,841.

Imax screened the final two episodes of Game Of Thrones fourth season plus a sneak preview of Season Five and reported $1.5m from 205 venues in a modest return for what may be a glimpse into the future.

Timbuktu opened via Cohen Media Group on $50,000 from four venues.

This week’s wide releases are: the Wachowskis’ sci-fi Jupiter Ascending starring Channing Tatum, Mila Kunis, Eddie Redmayne and Sean Bean via Warner Bros; Universal’s fantasy adventure Seventh Son with Jeff Bridges and Ben Barnes; and Paramount family film The Spongebob Movie: Sponge Out Of Water.

Estimated top 10 North America Jan 30-Feb 1, 2015
Film (Dist) / Est wkd gross / Est total to date

1 (1) American Sniper (Warner Bros) WBPI $31.9m $248.9m

2 (3) Paddington (TWC-Dimension) StudioCanal $8.505m $50.5m

3 (-) Project Almanac (Paramount) PPI $8.5m –

4 (-) Black Or White (Relativity) IM Global $6.5m –

5 (2) The Boy Next Door (Universal) UPI $6.1m $24.7m

6 (4) The Wedding Ringer (Screen Gems) SPRI $5.7m $48.1m

7 (6) The Imitation Game (The Weinstein Company) FilmNation $5.2m $67.9m

8 (5) Taken 3 (Fox) Fox International $3.7m $81.4m

9 (7) Strange Magic (Buena Vista) WDSMPI $3.4m $9.9m

10 (-) The Loft (Open Road) $2.9m –

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