President Obama has praised 'American Sniper'
American Sniper, Clint Eastwood's war drama that gained middling reviews though continues to storm the U.S box office, has set a new record for a Super Bowl weekend. The film starring Bradley Cooper took $31.85 million to secure the highest ever total taken over the sporting weekend, beating out Miley Cyrus's Both Worlds Concert Tour movie by $700,000.
Bradley Cooper [L] and Sienna Miller [R] in American Sniper
The Oscar-nominated drama, criticized in some quarters for its flag-raising patriotism, has clearly chimed with the American public and has taken $248.9 million domestically in just three weeks.
The Super Bowl - won this year by the New Orleans Patriots - is traditionally problematic for studios, though Eastwood's movie showed no signs of slowing up. Other films were not so successful and Michael Bay's time-travelling tale Project Almanac took just $8.5 million in third place. It was beaten to second spot by the critically acclaimed British animation, Paddington.
More: Is American Sniper's Chris Kyle really a coward?
Kevin Costner's drama Black or White opened in fourth with $6.4 million, while Jennifer Lopez's thriller The Boy Next Door took $6 million to take its total to $24.6 million.
President Obama has praised American Sniper for its "complex, emotional depiction of a veteran and his family... [it] reflects those wrenching stories that I've heard - the complex journeys that our men and women in uniform endure."
"The complicated moral decisions they are tasked with every day. The stresses of balancing love of family with a love of country. And the challenges of transitioning back home to their next mission in life," he said.
"Eastwood leaves a lot on the table when the big, difficult questions come up, but when the bombs start exploding, this movie is locked in and purposeful," said critic Mathew DeKinder.
More: American Sniper: Why Chris Kyle's wife is facing $1.4 million bill
Chesley Sullenberger has been a pilot all of his adult life. Having had an interest...
Tab Hunter was America's Boy Next Door in the 1950s, attracting a large female following...
Once again, director Clint Eastwood lurks in the background, springing a stunningly atmospheric thriller on...
What would you do when your own morals come into direct confrontation with your duty...
Music-lover Clint Eastwood adapts the long-running stage musical for the big screen with mixed results:...
The Four Seasons was one of the most adored rock bands of the sixties with...
A biography of iconic filmmaker John Milius, this engaging documentary features some of the biggest...
With beautiful but bland direction and a script that can't help but overstate everything, this...
Gus Lobel is one of the most formidable baseball talent scouts around, however his age...
Exquisitely designed and directed, with finely tuned performances that shine even through some heavy make-up,...
Anna Marie Hoover, like any mother, knew that her young son, John Edgar, would grow...
Eastwood's skilfully unrushed direction merges with Morgan's astute, thoughtful screenplay to create a thoroughly unusual...
What becomes of the human soul after our time in this life had ended? A...
Watch the trailer for Invictus Throughout the early to mid 1990's South Africa remained a...