The movie "Unbroken", directed by Angelina Jolie, started its race at the box office when it premiered on Christmas day, taking in $15.59 million.
It dipped a bit over the weekend at $31.7 million Friday-Sunday but finished big after the four-day opening at $47.3 million taking the spot as the third biggest Christmas debut film behind Sherlock Holmes ($62 million; Friday-Sunday) and Marley and Me ($36 million; Friday-Sunday).
Based on Laura Hillenbrand's 2010 bestseller book "Unbroken", the film is about Louis Zamperini, an Olympic runner turned World War II bombardier. After surviving a plane crash and spending 47 days adrift in the Pacific, he was plucked out of the ocean by a Japanese patrol boat and imprisoned in camps where he was brutalised for many years.
It is a story of survival, resilience and redemption, and apparently took four writers working in collaboration to condense the many pages of Hillenbrand's book to a two-hour movie.
The $65-million film courtesy of Legendary Pictures, Jolie Pas and Three Arts Entertainment, is Jolie's second directorial effort. Compared to her first film "In the Land of Blood and Honey" this film's entry has had a much higher profile and the actress-turned-director will no doubt be hoping her movie will be a major player at the forthcoming Oscars and possibly land her a Best Director nomination.
The Christian community is also taking an interest in the movie as Louis Zamperini was a committed Christian and spent the rest of his life after his release giving inspirational talks.
His daughter, Cynthia Garris, revealed at a press conference ahead of the movie's release that although Jolie was not a person of faith, she had a faith experience on the set.
"She was not a person of faith and had never prayed before, but she found herself at the very last scene of the movie ... They needed sunlight to shoot this very important scene and there had been a storm that had been going for a while," Garris explained.
"[Angelina] said, 'I don't know what I'm going to do so I'll do what Louie would do.' She got on her knees and she prayed for a miracle," Garris added. "Everybody saw it ... It stopped raining. The sun came out, a rainbow came out. She said, 'Let's get this take,' [and] they shot the take. When she said 'cut,' it started to rain again."
According to Garris, that moment stands as a testament to her father's faith and relationship with God.
Zamperini died of pneumonia on July 2 at age 97.
"Unbroken" is rated PG-13.
