American Sniper = Frozen
Monday, February 2, 2015 at 3:32PM American Sniper continued to be the story at the box office (Super Bowl weekend didn't slow it down) adding an incredible $31 million to its now gargantuan cume and it still maintains a great per screen average suggesting a long run still. It's now replaced Gone Girl as 2014's biggest non-franchise non-cgi driven hit aimed at adults. It will leapfrog Winter Soldier and LEGO this week to become the third biggest hit of 2014 behind The Hunger Games and Guardians of the Galaxy.
A strange turn of events. It's like the Frozen of 2014 (which also surpassed all expectations to close its year as #3) without the earworm diva showtunes
TOP O' THE BOX OFFICE
01 AMERICAN SNIPER $31.8 (cum. $248.9)
02 PADDINGTON $8.5 (cum. $50.5)
03 PROJECT ALMANAC $8.5 NEW
04 BLACK OR WHITE $6.4 NEW
05 THE BOY NEXT DOOR $6.0 (cum. $24.6)
In other significant box office news: Game of Thrones made $1.5 million with its IMAX gamble; Still Alice crossed the million dollar mark but is still at less than 100 theaters; Mauritania's first Oscar nominee Timbuktu debuted to only $50,000 from 4 theaters; and A Most Violent Year went wide to an unspectacular $1.7 million but at least it's out there to be seen. If you didn't see it this weekend, you know what Jessica Chastain would have to say about that...
This was very disrespectful.
So what did you see this weekend?
Reader Comments (26)
Timbuktu's numbers are disappointing.
As for American Sniper, I guess the biggest difference with Frozen will be that it can (and I think will) actually become the year's number one film, which would have sounded laughable as recently as three weeks ago!
Nat: How are the rest of the Oscar noms doing at the box office? Is TIG still in the top ten and where is Selma placed?
Er, there's a rather unfortunate typo pertaining to American Sniper's sum up there.
I always forget how strong the US right wing is viewing it from another country. Other things have made American Sniper a hit of course, but it's fascinating to watch the evangelical defense of that movie, which from my perspective was capably shot and acted, but nothing particularly special.
Sorry for the bolding error there!
F - Cum = cumulative box office.
Saw American Sniper last week and thought it was pretty standard Iraq/Afghanistan War fare. I guess this poo-poos peoples' complaining that no big earners are in the Best Picture race, though.
Huh, the more you know! I was taught cml. My apologies once again.
Didn't go the movies this weekend. Stayed in and had an international horror double feature of The Babadook and The Canal. Similar in some ways. I enjoyed The Canal over Baba but enjoyed both nonetheless.
Saw Boyhood, and it deserves every iota of praise it's been receiving. A very rare experience at the movies--packs an emotional wallop. Also, Begin Again. Both Kiera and the music were sensational. I would much rather her be up for Best Actress for this than Supporting for IG.
That Chastain gif is so versatile.
F -- i believe that is becoming increasingly common for the reasons you pointed out. It's not wrong either ;)
I'd take A Most Violent Year over American Sniper any day.
Paddington--in a packed theater, which just proves parents are desperate for kid movies. This one, while predictable, was enjoyable, and Sally Hawkins, as always, is adorable. The set design was super cool, and super British, which I loved--lots of bold colors, and interesting objects in the background, kind of Nanny McPhee-ish.
Predestination--worthwhile, a cross between Looper and Timecop. Hawke and Sarah Snook were excellent.
The Last Days (Los últimos días)--also interesting, a different take on zombie/flu/other pandemic apocalypse stories. The leads were excellent.
I saw the live action shorts nominees. They were all meh. If you get a chance to see them, great. If not, no worries. You aren't missing much. Hopefully the animated shorts will be better.
I saw A Most Violent Year and I loved it - it would probably be among my top 5 of 2014. Chastain and Isaac were both superb. Someday Chandor will make a movie that will catch the Academy's attention (at least he is off that dull-sounding BP oil spill project).
I FINALLY saw The Imitation Game and thought it was quite good, but left the theater feeling that something was off, but I couldn't quite put my finger on it. So I went back and listened to your podcast about it, and leave it to the Incredible Nick Davis to point it out: It's as though literally NO ONE involved in the making of the film understood the machine. I had no clue what exactly it did, or how it did it, and what's worse there were points during the film that made me think that Turing himself didn't even understand it! I was mostly okay with how they treated the homosexuality stuff, but with that closing text block it just got muddled: Throughout the entire movie it felt like it was just another one of Turing's secrets (and possibly his first), but then they tried to turn it into some larger statement, and that felt weird and a bit disingenuous. But Cumberbatch was very good and Knightley was just INCREDIBLE. Talk about spinning straw into gold! Nice score, too.
Although I don't know what in the hell it's doing winning any screenplay prizes. That "Sometimes it's the people no one imagines anything of..." line is SO awkward at first (especially coming from the mouth of a young boy), and only sounds worse with each subsequent iteration. Even Keira couldn't save it.
Saw American Sniper - Thought Cooper was great, thought the action scenes were alternatively gripping and cheesy, Miller cried a lot and somehow goes from being totally bland and generic to quirky and awkward, but really, based on what I've read about what Chris Kyle said in his own autobiography, it actually seems the filmmakers made him even less...strident...than he appears in the film. Which to me makes it seem like they wanted him to be more likable. Which, is that's the case, why make the film about this specific person at all? If you think the audience can't handle how much he enjoyed killing people (he actually said it was "fun" in the book), then why are you backing away from your own source material that you allegedly felt so strongly about you wanted to make it a movie?
I don't know. It wanted to somehow be both a character study AND a Very Important War Movie AND an action film and while not totally a failure in any of those aspects, not a complete success, either.
20 years from now we'll still be quoting "This was very disrespectful"
wasn't enamored with A Most Violent Year but still appreciated it a great deal and kind of want to see it again--I think I just love Chastain with Isaac. They're so sexy and so good together. I also think I'm kind of in love with Oscar Isaac, so there's that as well.
In real life, I saw Mr. Turner. Cognitively, my brain appreciated it for the complex, strange, beautiful movie that it was. Emotionally, I was dazed with regret for having let my friend dragged me to this instead of seeing The Babadook or Mommy instead. It is. so. long. and. so. slow.
Saw Whiplash. Bottled liquid cinematic intensity, but I'm not sure there's much to it beyond that.
Inspired by Glenn's post from the other day, I finally made myself watch Virunga and Finding Vivian Maier. I'll probably post comments about them over there, or on the follow up post, but I liked both of them with reservations - minor in the case of Virguna, but Finding Vivian Maier... well, it kind of left a bad taste in my mouth.
I also *finally* got around to Selma and pretty much loved it. Well, I loved the second half. The first half felt a bit disjointed and overstuffed - and I totally get why, and I kind of love that DuVerney tried to say SO MUCH with so little time. The second half of the film, the actual marches, etc, was where the film really came alive for me, and Oyelowo's channeling of Dr. King for that final sequence and speech brought a tear to my eye. And just for reference, I almost*never* cry at movies. The last time was in 2005.
I'm so confused at how well American Sniper is doing. I mean, who is even watching that?
Derreck: Idiots of a certain stripe? See also: The Passion of the Christ and why Tyler Perry was so popular for so long.
Saw "Whiplash" and "Inherent Vice" -- had almost the exact opposite reactions to them. Whiplash is streamlined and suspenseful in the moment but afterwards, it just faded away. Inherent Vice is perplexing and hallucinatory throughout but has stayed with me, continuing to make me ask questions and want to revisit it.
As for the acting, I preferred Phoenix and Brolin's comedic adversarial relationship to the broad mythic pairing of Teller and Simmons.
fwiw, TIG is still in the top ten (#7). It and Sniper are the only two Best Picture noms left (Selma is at #11) and TIG showed the least drop in percentage of any returning film in the top 10 including Sniper.
Saw Theory of Everything and Birdman - and Redmaye DESERVES the Oscar over Keaton.
Problem is that the rightwing conservative members of the Academy might do a Crash and give American Sniper and Bradley Cooper the big gongs this year.
Even Hanoi Jane (Fonda) has tweeted her kudos to Cooper, Eastwood and American Sniper.
If this gung ho pro-USA and anti-Islam pic can win over a supposed lefty - I wouldn't be surprised if Sniper wins Best Pic and Actor in a few weeks.
And that is when millions of Oscar fans will stop following the Oscars ever again.
Didn't see any films in theaters this weekend, but caught "Boyhood" (good, but don't think Arquette should be steamrollering her way to a win) and "Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow?" (loved this - music score reminded me of "Far From Heaven").