Love, love, love, this little insider peek:

[Warner Bros. Distribution President Dan Fellman] joyfully recounted the phone call he placed to Eastwood last weekend, when he said “Clint, this is your biggest [opening] weekend ever.”
How’d he respond? “He’s the coolest dude on the planet, you know,” Fellman said. “He said, ‘Gee, man, that’s great.'”
Warner Bros. has been in business with Eastwood for many years, Fellman added — but “this kind of thing certainly required a phone call to the house.”

CNN MONEY – […] Indeed, it’s commanded the attention of the entire motion picture industry — and that attention is now turning toward this weekend, when the movie expands to 3,705 screens, 150 more than it was on last weekend.
The new record: this is the “widest release ever for an R-rated movie,” according to the definitive industry news site Box Office Mojo.

[…] Fellman said Warner Bros. was hopeful for a $50 million four-day opening weekend (Friday through Monday, with Monday being the MLK holiday).
“That would have been a gigantic number,” he said.
Instead “Sniper” made $34 million the first day, $38 million the second day and $105.3 million total — what he called “just staggering, staggering numbers.”
The results are sure to help Warner Bros., the studio division of Time Warner. CNN, the parent of this web site, is also owned by Time Warner.
In a telephone interview, Fellman rattled off other Hollywood records that “Sniper” had broken — like “best opening for a movie based on a book,” “largest MLK opening weekend ever,” and “largest drama opening weekend ever.”
What about week two? Fellman wouldn’t predict a box office total, but said it’s safe to say that the movie will once again be No. 1 this weekend. The closest competition is “The Boy Next Door,” a new release starring Jennifer Lopez. (read more)