Clint Eastwood's ex-Navy Seal biopic "American Sniper" has been raking in numbers at the box office and set a new weekend record at Super Bowl XLIX earning $31.8 million according to Variety.
The film, who stars Bradley Cooper as Navy Seal Chris Kyle has broken the record of "Hannah Montana/Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds Concert Tour," which managed to raise $31.2 million when it was released in 2008.
It now challenges "The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 1" as the highest-grossing film released in 2014, and will pass "The Matrix Reloaded," becoming the second biggest R-rated film in history.
The movie has already earned $248.9 million, very unlikely for an adult drama that tackles the topic of the psychological effects of war. "Saving Private Ryan" has already been surpassed by "American Sniper" as the highest-grossing war movie of all time.
Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst at Rentrak says the results "are superhero movie numbers."
"People are hearing about this movie, talking about it and I imagine it's leading them to see it multiple times to get to these type of numbers." he added.
"American Sniper" trumped all competition for a third consecutive weekend, including "Paddington," which earned $8.7 million and is pushing its domestic sales well over $50 million.
Paramount's "Project Almanac" finished in third place with an $8.5 million debut across 2,893 locations.
"American Sniper" is an American biographical war drama directed by Clint Eastwood, based on the novel "American Sniper: The Autobigraphy of the Most Lethal Sniper in U.S. Military History" by Chris Kyle.
Bradley Cooper stars as Chris Kyle, the deadly sniper who managed 255 kills during his deployment. Sienna Miller, Luke Grimes, Kyle Gallner, Cory Hardrict, Same Jaeger and Jake McDorman co-star Cooper in the film.
The movie premiered on Nov. 11, 2014 at the American Film Institute Festival and was followed by limited theatrical screenings in the United States on Dec. 25, 2014.
