'American Sniper' Astounds With $105.3M Over MLK Weekend
Source: WRAL.com Posted 1:43 p.m. today
Clint Eastwood's R-rated Iraq War drama "American Sniper" opened in January like a superhero movie in July, taking in a record $105.3 million over the Martin Luther King Jr. four-day weekend. The film's unprecedented success obliterated forecasts and set numerous box-office records. It easily surpassed "Avatar" to become the biggest January weekend ever.
The resounding wide-release opening is also tops for the 84-year-old Eastwood, whose previous best weekend was the $29.5 million wide release of 2009's "Gran Torino.' And it, in one weekend, gives the Oscar best-picture race something it was lacking: a big ol' box-office hit. "American Sniper, nominated for six Academy Awards, immediately becomes the top grosser of the best-picture nominees. The previous biggest hit was Wes Anderson's "Grand Budapest Hotel," which made $59.1 million in its entire run.
This was actually the third week of release for "American Sniper," which played in just a handful of theaters for two weeks. That slow release pattern helped stoke demand for the film, in which Bradley Cooper stars as Navy SEAL marksman Chris Kyle. "It's become a cultural phenomenon," said Dan Fellman, head of domestic distribution for Warner Bros. "The movie reached an audience that's very hard to tap into. In both red and blue states, small and large cities, tiny towns — everywhere we went — it broke records."
Going into the weekend, optimistic predictions for "American Sniper" were closer to $50 million, which still would have been an enormous success, particularly considering how little appetite audiences have had for movies about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. "This was maybe the most underestimated film of all time, considering that it did about twice what estimates predicted," said Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst for box-office firm Rentrak. "This just doesn't happen."
Read more: http://www.wral.com/-american-sniper-astounds-with-105-3m-over-mlk-weekend/14368212/
= new reply since forum marked as read
Highlight:
NoneDon't highlight anything
5 newestHighlight 5 most recent replies
Happyhippychick
(8,379 posts)big_dog
(4,144 posts)or Unforgiven which was also an Oscar favorite
Happyhippychick
(8,379 posts)big_dog
(4,144 posts)
hack89
(39,171 posts)uhnope
(6,419 posts)as I say here (spoiler alert) : http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=6106899
MFM008
(19,821 posts)no interest in the chair whisperers point of view anymore.
Sherman A1
(38,958 posts)I have no interest in the subject. As for Eastwood, could care less one way or the other.
Ash_F
(5,861 posts)
Corey_Baker08
(2,157 posts)Just my opinion, I just think that it is more than a war movie, it is a war movie that shows the stigma & the real life struggles that way too many soldiers are returning home with & the fights that they face when they do arrive home, from PTSD to the thoughts of suicide...
candelista
(1,986 posts)The movie glorifies its sniper-hero. He never gets PTSD. He has some minor problems readjusting to civilian life, so, on advice of a military shrink, he starts helping disabled vets, and that fixes everything.
What do you expect from Eastwood? Zero depth.
pocoloco
(3,180 posts)candelista
(1,986 posts)Well, that's your opinion, which also has zero depth.
tabasco
(22,974 posts)oh wise one.
blkmusclmachine
(16,149 posts)
sinkingfeeling
(51,478 posts)oberliner
(58,724 posts)Violent ones have been extremely big of late.
Put them together and you have box office gold.
onenote
(42,778 posts)The highest ranking "war" movie of all time is Saving Private Ryan, and it doesn't crack the top 100 of all time movies (even with adjustments for ticket inflation).
Movies like Zero Dark Thirty, Hurt Locker -- pretty weak box office performances relative to other movies.
The second highest grossing war movie is Pearl Harbor and it barely cracks the top 200 all time.
With ticket inflation adjustments, the second and third highest grossing "war" movies are Sergent York (1941) and Bridge over the River Kwai (1957).
oberliner
(58,724 posts)Highest grossing movie in US history, Avatar, is a war movie.
Numbers five and six are also war movies (in fact, they have the word "war" in the title).
onenote
(42,778 posts)Yes, Star Wars and Avatar are "war" movies under your expansive definition. But I'm going to respectfully disagree with the idea that the popularity of these movies was driven by the audience's taste for violence. These are fantasy/action movies.
Consider this year's top grossing movies: under your view of what constitutes a war movie, I suppose the top movies all are "war" movies: Guardians of the Galaxy, Hunger Games, Capt. America:Winter Soldier; LEGO movie, Hobbit: Battle of Five Armies; Transformers.
All did well at the box office, but most people would regard these as fantasy or action movies and, again, I don't think the violence, even in the Captain America or Hunger Games movies is what attracted audiences.
Notably, the most traditional "violent" war movie of the year, Fury, was a relative box office flop (37th in the year's rankings). Jack Ryan Shadow Recruit, which might fit your definition of a war movie, didn't recover its cost from US ticket sales (64th in the ranking). And the two movies considered the most violent releases of the year, The Raid2 and Sabotage were total box office disasters.
The reality is that traditional war movies don't do that well. Saving Private Ryan is probably the most successful and one of the most violent traditional war movie, but again, I don't think its success was the product of some uniquely American lust for violence.
I haven't seen American Sniper and I haven't decided whether I will. But I know a lot of people who did go to see it -- and they are not republican war mongers. But they were attracted to it because it received very good reviews and received nominations for best actor, best director, and best movie -- and it stars one of the most popular and hottest actors around. So its success is hardly a surprise to me.
oberliner
(58,724 posts)I'm just saying that Americans like war movies. Good guys fighting bad guys and whatnot. Big epic fighting between two sides is very appealing for a movie. Often with much killing and violence.
I do think that those movies you've listed are "war movies" in that sense. Even if many involve elements of fantasy. It's hard to say what exactly was the reason for their appeal.
In general I agree with everything else you've written here.
Snow Leopard
(348 posts)so that just means every nation loves violence and endless war right?
sinkingfeeling
(51,478 posts)glorify violence and war. I don't recall seeing a lot about war movies in Ireland.
Inkfreak
(1,695 posts)
Paladin
(28,276 posts)oberliner
(58,724 posts)What percentage of male movie stars over 50 have never been divorced?
Paladin
(28,276 posts)I doubt you'll like what I said.
And for what it's worth, I think Eastwood is a highly gifted director. I think his "Letters From Iwo Jima" is an exceptional war movie. I don't think I'll be seeing this latest movie, for the same reason I no longer hunt or engage in other shooting sports: I wouldn't like the company I'd have to keep.....
oberliner
(58,724 posts)I don't think he is a very good director, and I am generally not a fan of his movies. I also recognize he is a serial womanizer and supports the Republican party. That being said, there are worse people in Hollywood making way more offensive and less thought-provoking movies, as far as I am concerned.
Tom Ripley
(4,945 posts)I imagine another record will be broken
elias49
(4,259 posts)Tom Ripley
(4,945 posts)
GGJohn
(9,951 posts)Tom Ripley
(4,945 posts)GGJohn
(9,951 posts)Tom Ripley
(4,945 posts)there's jus' no stoppin' 'em
GGJohn
(9,951 posts)You're sounding foolish now.
William Seger
(10,779 posts)Well, some of the success is probably due to the currency of the topic, but the trailers are very intriguing without being over-hyped. Some trailers make you feel like you've probably already seen the best parts of the movie; the two I've seen for American Sniper make me feel like I want to know more about the story.
mountain grammy
(26,656 posts)And I turned them off.
William Seger
(10,779 posts)... I got a rather different impression from the trailers.
Fred Sanders
(23,946 posts)of stuff in America...300 million guns in civilian hands to the contrary.
So Eastwood gets accolades for plaigerizing Call of Duty...."Kill All the Muslims" edition?
No black nominations, but a movie about killing brown people is the hit....
Hollywood is racist, do we have to punch you in face to get it?
Sorry, Francis.
GGJohn
(9,951 posts)
earthside
(6,960 posts)My notion is that current events maybe driving attendance to this movie ... no matter what it is really about.
ISIS and Charlie Hebdo are on people's minds and here comes a movie that looks to be about Americans killing "the enemy".
I won't go see it; for me there is something creepy about the whole 'sniper' routine.
Perhaps it is necessary in total war, but it is nonetheless particularly ugly and gruesome.
Is there any soldier more hated, feared and reviled than an enemy sniper?
Yet, of course, the 'good guys' engage in the same activity.
Because of the obsession with guns in the country and the fixation on the individual right to own and use a gun, this sniper idea is especially disturbing. Everyday we are reading news reports of an individual taking someone or some persons out with their '2nd Amendment' remedy. How can we forget John Allen Muhammad?
A regular soldier is not generally targeting other individuals with contemplation like a sniper -- it does therefore seem the sniper role is designed for a 'serial killer' mentality.
How much money the movie makes is symbolic of the level of violence Americans are seeking in their entertainment.
Besides all that, the main character of this movie is an adjudicated liar.
shedevil69taz
(512 posts)One in Afghanyland three in Iraq...I don't think I will ever be seeing this movie, while my experience at a satellite communication expert largely kept me in secured areas, that wasn't always the case, and to get from one to the other you still have to go through unsecured ones...and rockets and morters largely ignore the walls of said secured areas. I still have problems even when the trailers come on...too many bad memories
JonLP24
(29,322 posts)A sniper movie is the top movie during the weekend of a sniper victim.
I don't think it was intentional though.
DeSwiss
(27,137 posts)
Taitertots
(7,745 posts)Americans don't want to face reality because then they would have to admit that our war "hero" was nothing more than a serial killer wrapped in a flag. Then they would have to critically think about the Iraq war and our servicemen.
You can't masterbate about how great the U.S. is when we are slaughtering innocent people on behalf of rich people.
