Clint Eastwood's "American Sniper" is proving to be a major box office success. The film, starring Bradley Cooper as Navy SEAL sniper Chris Kyle, was released nationwide on Jan. 16 and has already raked in $200.4 million. According to CNN Money, during the film's opening weekend it earned $105 million, breaking a new-release record for January.
During the second weekend the movie was in theaters in raked in $64.6 million. Jennifer Lopez's "The Boy Next Door" came in second that same weekend making $14.9 million during its debut. Other new releases included "Strange Magic," which is currently in seventh place" and Johnny Depp's "Mortdecai" in ninth with $4.2 million.
Rounding out the top five highest-grossing movies for last weekend was "Paddington," "The Wedding Ringer" and "Taken 3." If "American Sniper" continues on its path the movie could beat "The Passion of the Christ," which holds the title for the highest-grossing movie of all time.
In 2004, the film raked in $370 million at the box office, CNN Money reports. "American Sniper" isn't just dominating the box office; it's also sparking up some serious conversation about the Iraq War. Last week at the Producers Guild Award Nominees Breakfast in Beverly Hills, Eastwood said he believed the film was making an anti-war statement.
"The biggest anti-war statement any film," can make is to show "the fact of what [war] does to the family and the people who have to go back into civilian life like Chris Kyle did," the director said, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
"One of my favorite war movies that I've been involved with is 'Letters from Iwo Jima,'" Eastwood added. "And that was about family, about being taken away from life, being sent someplace. In World War II, everybody just sort of went effort to help people through it. In Chris Kyle's case no good deed went unpunished."
