After snagging in a behemoth amount of $90.2 million during its debut weekend, the 2014 American biographical war drama film "American Sniper" is en route to breaking additional box office records during the Martin Luther King holiday and for the entire month of January. It is expected that the film will be raking in $105 million during the four-day period.
The film also marks a new box office high for director Clint Eastwood. Eastwood's "American Sniper" was able to topple the 84-year old acting veteran's previous project, "Gran Torino," released way back in 2008 with an accumulated $29.5 million gross earnings for its wide-release opening, not even brushing the new record set by the new film.
In addition to this, "American Sniper" was also able to usurp several records set by James Cameron's "Avatar," a movie that remained unbeaten in the box office records, stacking up a total amount exceeding $2.7 billion. This includes the records held for the biggest January weekend performance, where "Avatar" made $68.5 million the first weekend of 2010 as well as the biggest gross for a single day in the same month, which was $28.5 million.
Furthermore, "American Sniper" has been nominated for six Academy Awards, including the prestigious Best Picture award.
According to Dan Fellman, Warner Bros. head of domestic distribution, as quoted by Variety, "The movie has become a cultural phenomenon."
He also added in his statement that "American Sniper" broke box office records by a substantial margin.
"American Sniper" is based on Chris Kyle's autobiography "American Sniper: The Autobiography of the Most Lethal Sniper in U.S. Military History." Kyle has recorded a kill tally of 255, with 160 of them being confirmed by the Department of Defense. He has been noted as the deadliest marksman in U.S. military history. Iraqi insurgents had named him "Devil of Ramadi" and eventually, his reputation earned him the moniker "Legend."
