Katniss Everdeen may have impeccable aim but it is "American Sniper" that has really hit with movie going audiences.
"American Sniper" officially passed "The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 1" as 2014's highest-grossing film at the box office. Clint Eastwood's war film about Navy SEAL Chris Kyle has fought its way to an estimated $337.2 million domestic and a worldwide total of roughly $500.2 million.
Even the star power of Jennifer Lawrence couldn't compete as "The Hunger Games" has topped out at $336.9 domestically. The penultimate film in the blockbuster franchise was skewered by critics for stretching content from the novels just a bit too thin in this latest installment.
Warner Bros. and Village Roadshow bank rolled "Sniper" for a mere $58 million, receiving a fantastic return on their investment overall. The film is adapted from Kyle's autobiography of the same name and racked up six Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture and Best Actor in a Leading Role for star Bradley Cooper. It was Cooper's third nomination in as many years.
"Who would expect a drama to have this kind of enormous success?" Jeff Goldstein, the executive vice president and general sales manager for Warner Bros. said. "It shows it doesn't matter when a movie comes out if it's extraordinary storytelling and hits the public in a very personal way."
Goldstein is noting the film's late December limited release, a window in which Oscar hopefuls rarely debut. Yet that didn't stop "Sniper" from garnering critical acclaim as well as setting several box office records.
"You don't have to be an American to identify with the patriotism of the story," Goldstein said. "Wherever you live and whatever your ideologies are, there are still pieces of the film you can identify with.
"The fact that we've had this remarkable success reaffirms that none of us know anything about our business," Goldstein said. "We always can get surprised and shocked...sometimes you can't just foresee it."
