'American Sniper' Poised to Take Katniss Out as Top-Grossing 2014 Release
By Anthony D'Alessandro
Two months after its Christmas day release, Warner Bros./Village Roadshow’s American Sniper is still going strong at the domestic box office. By the second week of March, if not sooner, the film is expected to take over Lionsgate’s November opener The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1 as the highest grossing release of 2014.
Mockingjay‘s domestic box office currently stands at $336.45M through yesterday, while American Sniper has amassed $322.59M. Heading into its 10th weekend, American Sniper is still open wide at 2,914 theaters; compare that to The Hobbit: The Battle of Five Armies which is entering its 11th frame at 304 venues with a running stateside cumulative of $254M. Last Sunday, American Sniper won an Oscar for best sound editing, one of its six nominations which included best picture and actor (Bradley Cooper). The film generated $10M last weekend.
On January 21, Mockingjay surpassed Marvel’s The Guardians of the Galaxy ($333.18M), an August release, as the highest grossing film of 2014. While American Sniper did actually make 99.5 percent of its U.S./Canada tickets sales this year, in the box office annals it’s credited as a 2014 release, even though it launched in four theaters in New York and Los Angeles. On Feb. 15, the Clint Eastwood-directed film crossed the $300M threshold.
Need another amazing American Sniper stat? Warner Bros. churned out eight mega tentpoles with the Harry Potter franchise, and American Sniper has beat seven of ‘em stateside except for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2 ($381M).
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