Box Office Shattered: ‘American Sniper’ Records $90.2 Million Weekend

Clint Eastwood's latest action/war movie is smashing records at the North American box office, where it topped Friday's chart with $30.5 million from 3,555 theaters, well ahead of expectations.

American Sniper ended it's incredible debut weekend with an astonishing $90.2 million in wide release.

It marks 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.

It is now on pace to decimate records for the Martin Luther King holiday and for the month of January, pulling in roughly $105 million over the four-day period. It’s also a new high-water mark for director Clint Eastwood, whose previous weekend record was the $29.5 million wide release opening for 2008’s “Gran Torino.”

The Last movie to score the highest Martin Luther King weekend was last year’s “Ride Along” with $48.6 million starring #IceCube and #KevinHart.

“The movie has become a cultural phenomenon,” said Dan Fellman, Warner Bros. head of domestic distribution. “It tore apart the record book and not by a little. By an enormous amount.”

Watch the very interesting clip in the player below, Clint Eastwood discusses a scene from his Oscar-nominated film, in which Chris Kyle (Bradley Cooper) takes a moment in a bar to unwind after returning from an Iraq tour.:

The film received a limited release on December 25, 2014, before opening wide on January 16, 2015.

Cooper plays Chris Kyle, the most lethal sniper in American military history, who claims to have killed 255 people during his four tours in Iraq.