'American Sniper' Box Office: Clint Eastwood's New Film With Bradley Cooper Soars In Theaters [VIDEO]
Clint Eastwood's new film American Sniper is soaring at the box office as it brought in $30.5 million in the North American market.
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The movie, starring Bradley Cooper, is also expected to surpass predictions over the weekend with a debut of $75 million to $80 million. Those numbers would make American Sniper the biggest movie debut ever in January.
The film is based on the real-life story of Navy SEAL Chris Kyle who served in Afghanistan and became known as one of the most skillful snipers in American military history.
Despite it's immediate success, the movie has received some backlash from people who don't feel the fallen sniper should be praised as a war hero. At the recent D.C. premiere of the film, Cooper explained the intent of the film.
"Our whole idea was to do a character study about a soldier, and a soldier and a family, and what it's like having to deal with the schizophrenic nature of having to jostle between a home life and being in theater. I think hopefully it could be a universal story," he told The Daily Beast.
The film received six Academy Award nominations, including best actor for Mr. Cooper. However, Eastwood didn't get a nomination as best director.
