Clint Eastwood’s American Sniper is smashing records at the North American box office, where it topped Friday’s chart with $30.5 million from 3,555 theaters for a debut in the $75 million-$80 million range over the long Martin Luther King Jr. weekend, well ahead of expectations.
That would mark the largest opening of all time for the month of January, as well as one of the top grosses ever for a non-tentpole, much less an R-rated, modern-day war film.
How is it that Hollywood is continually surprised that films that are patriotic or portray Americans, particularly servicemembers, in a positive light are highly successful. They’re always shocked that films that trash the military, such as In the Valley of Elah get fantastic reviews, but top out with a box office gross of just over $6 million?
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