Artman

Many anticipated it being a hit (very comparable to Lone Survivor a year ago), but doing twice the numbers anticipated caught everyone in the industry off guard, not just here. Like others have said, it has all the great elements to it - but I'd credit running the ads every other commercial break during the NFL playoffs as a big factor as well.

And like it or not, I think it has also tapped into the evangelical Christian market - the ones who didn't turn out for Noah or Exodus... but go to LOTR, Hobbit and other Judeo-Christian minded films. Guess what Hollywood, when you make an earnest film, that is heartfelt - we turn out! How else can you explain it?

Given the big hold this wknd... could be looking at 300-350m. Like it or not, ya gotta love this thing destroying every other movie in it's path.

I'm loving this - the Seahawks won and this movie is kicking ass!

From Box Office Guru: #AmericanSniper playing out at same level as PassionOfTheChrist from 11yrs ago. Same total after 8days of natl play.

Bluelitespecial

I just got back from seeing it tonight. I didnt see it as a political movie, but being pro military. All the anti Iraq war movies have failed miserable, and this makes you appreciate the sacrafices made by our soliders.

Ash Ketchum

LOVE STORY was the TITANIC of its day, but made for a tiny fraction of its budget. Both attracted tons of female moviegoers who wanted to see a tragic love story. Women eat that shit up and when it's done in a way that pleases them (God knows how you can figure that out in advance), the movies become hits. I found it pretty silly at the time, but I had to go along with it so the girls wouldn't get mad at me. I started college two or three weeks after seeing it. By the time TITANIC came out 27 years later, I no longer gave a shit and trashed the movie relentlessly. My daughter, thank God, sees through these things immediately.

Solid Snake

I don't think any movie really downsizes the sacrifice of a soldier really. Maybe it shits on the politics or whatever but I can't say I think of any that really doesn't value the human life of the soldier. A film may blindly generalize a foreign force but even w/ that... we don't care about them. We care about us. That's the point.

I'm not sure how I feel about the idea of a film making one appreciate the sacrifice of a soldier. If a film does that... what does that say about you? That may come off wrong depending how one may read it or I worded it but still...

I particularly don't care for anybody in the military, shitty reason or not... they're putting their life on the line... so props to those that have risked it.

creekdipper

Could you elaborate? At first glance, it seems to be contradictory although I'm sure you didn't mean it to be.

Solid Snake

I don't care about people in the military. Just because they're in it doesn't move them in some totem of people to respect or whatever for me. I respect the action of risking your life cuz that takes balls. In other words.... I guess to make sense of it... I respect the action of putting your life on the line but don't necessarily respect those in military just cuz they're in military.

RichC2

Summarized: Being in the military and putting your life on the line are two different things.

Solid Snake

There we fucking go.

RichC2

Also, the now continued controversy of the movie will keep the movie afloat better than it already was.

Solid Snake

Pretty much.

dom56

There are questions about some of Kyle's stories that he told just weren't true. Claims to have sniped looters in New Orleans after hurricane Katrina. Fought with Jesse Ventura in which Jesse sued him for defamation and won.

http://www.slate.com/blogs/browbeat/...yle_movie.html

DVD Josh

Do Republicans run Hollywood too? Because that would certainly explain the Oscar nominations, unless you are just completely full of it, as usual.

MoviePage

Don't encourage them.

Solid Snake

Old white people rule Hollywood. Well... America too. That's why some shit is very fucking slow in progressing socially.

Drexl

I don't think Eastwood is a big box office draw just as a director though. Of his last 8 movies before AS, the only one that managed to gross more than $47 million domestically was Gran Torino, in which he starred. Before AS, only 3 of his films grossed $100 million; 2 of them only managed to reach the mark after winning Best Picture (and of course he acted in those as well).

Shannon Nutt

I think it's a combination of that PLUS regular movie goers, PLUS the fact that it's a very good film. It's not just one group.

I STILL don't get all the left wing hate. I'm left wing and I don't think there's anything particularly controversial about the movie. Of course, it only makes more right-wing types want to support it, so all the press must be making Warners, Eastwood and company VERY happy.

stvn1974

They should of made the film about his claims that he shot looters during Katrina. If anything would bring out the conservatives that would have been it.

Defiant1

AS is a good movie. Great direction and a great performance by Bradley Cooper. He is a total 180 from Phil from The Hangover. If you watch this movie without any knowledge of what the real Chris Kyle was like, then you will leave the theatre cowed and awed by the man's sacrifice and duty. However, what has some liberals (myself included) concerned is that the movie makes absolutely no mention of the, shall we say more morally gray aspects of his character. Several of these events are fairly well known and to ignore all of them smacks of one big ole whitewash. It's like making a movie about the presidential career of Bill Clinton and to completely ignore the Lewinsky issue.

johnnysd

as more of a centrist myself, I think both parties have some things right but atr mostly looney tunes, the portrayal of his sacrifice and "duty" (self imposed) is portrayed as very heroic which is very conservatively political....based on only the movie portrayal itself...

mcnabb

Putting aside the politics (which I will get to later), I think it was a great trailer as that one scene with him at the bar talking to his wife (as he looked distraught) was very powerful. I don't goto the movies much, but the fact that Eastwood directed and it looked like a good trailer, I was definetly going to see it now. I can say the same for many of my friends and family too as they all thought it 'looked' like a great movie, and that is what trailers are designed to do.

As for the politics, I have said it in the other thread but I really wish the partisan idiots would just go away in this country. They have to politicize EVERYTHING these days (whether its sports with Michael Sam being gay, or TV shows, movies, etc.) and most of the American public just doesn't care either way as they are just playing to the partisan voters who lop up everything they say as the Bible. All of the idiots at Fox News are non stop in praising the movie to the point that you aren't a patriot if you don't see it. But the left wing is no better with idiots like MSNBC, Michael Moore, Bill Maher, and Matt Taibii just trashing the movie simply because they're liberal.

I know alot of these war movies have a political message, but if they are still well done I will always see them. Platoon is my favorite war movie and it was written and directed by one of the biggest libs in Hollywood, Oliver Stone. Yes, he definetly spins his experience in Vietnam to his political views, but that still doesn't take away that its a powerful movie. But I guarantee if it were released today, Fox News would be bashing it and MSNBC would be praising it.

inri222

I'm surprised an employee of Time Warner was allowed to bash one of their products.

Sean O'Hara

Other than the fact that, out of all the men and women who've served in the military over the last fifteen years, it chose to glorify a racist liar? The gap between Chris Kyle and Alvin York or Audie Murphy is so big you could pour the Pacific Ocean into it and it'd only be half full.

Solid Snake

Kyle was a racist?

Brack

Because it's a fantasy film?

EddieMoney

Watched it last night, and enjoyed it. Everyone referred to him as hero and a legend, but he was portrayed as an obviously broken person.