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Tag: American Sniper

  • ‘Fifty Shades of Grey’ seduces box office with $239.7 million

    ‘Fifty Shades of Grey’ seduces box office with $239.7 million

    MUMBAI: Universal Pictures’ erotica movie Fifty Shades of Grey has seduced the global box office with stupendous collections of $ 239.7 million in its opening weekend. 

     

    According to Rentrak’s box office estimates for the weekend of 15 February, 2015, the movie collected a whopping $81.7 million at the box office in North America.

     

    Rentrak senior media analyst Paul Dergarabedian said, “Universal’s erotic drama Fifty Shades of Grey felt the love from audiences as it earned a whopping $239.7 million around the globe this weekend. Generating an impressive $158 million in 58 international territories (and $81.7 million in North America), this is Universal’s second biggest international opening weekend ever behind Fast & Furious 6 at $160.3 million. Also impressive is the super cool Kingsman: The Secret Service from Fox that in its second weekend internationally took no prisoners with $23.1 million in 38 territories. This combined with the $35.6 million it earned in its North American debut gives Kingsman $58.7 million for the weekend and a worldwide total to date of nearly $80 million.”

     

    The top 12 worldwide weekend box office estimates, listed in descending order, per data collected as of Sunday, 15 February, 2015, are below:

     

    1. Fifty Shades Of Grey – $239.7 million

    2. Kingsman: The Secret Service – $58.7 million

    3. Spongebob Squarepants: Sponge Out Of Water – $44 million

    4. Somewhere Only We Know – $30 million

    5. Jupiter Ascending – $25 million

    6. American Sniper – $20.1 million

    7. Big Hero 6 – $9.9 million

    8. Taken 3 – $8.3 million

    9. The Imitation Game – $7.5 million

    10. Night At The Museum: Secret Of The Tomb – $7.1 million

    11. Detective K: The Laborer’s Daughter – $6.2 million

    12. Paddington – $5.1 million

     

    The top 12 North American weekend box office estimates, listed in descending order, per data collected as of Sunday, 15 February, 2015, are below:

     

    1. Fifty Shades Of Grey – $81.7 million

    2. Kingsman: The Secret Service – $35.6 million

    3. Spongebob Squarepants: Sponge Out Of Water – $30.5 million

    4. American Sniper – $16.4 million

    5. Jupiter Ascending – $9.4 million

    6. Seventh Son – $4.2 million

    7. Paddington – $4.1 million

    8. The Imitation Game – $3.5 million

    9. The Wedding Ringer – $3.4 million

    10. Project Almanac – $2.7 million

    11. Black Or White – $2.6 million

    12. The Boy Next Door – $1.8 million

  • ‘American Sniper’ hits $200 million at US box office

    ‘American Sniper’ hits $200 million at US box office

    MUMBAI: Warner Bros. Pictures’ and Village Roadshow Pictures’ Oscar-nominated movie American Sniper has surpassed $200 million at the North American box office on only its tenth day in wide release.

     

    Following its record-breaking first weekend in wide release, the Clint Eastwood-directed film has continued to fill conventional and IMAX theatres nationwide. American Sniper took in an estimated $64.4 million this past weekend, representing the smallest percentage drop ever for a film that opened at more than $85 million, including both three and four-day weekends, and bringing the domestic gross to $200.1 million and climbing. The movie is now, domestically, the highest-grossing film in Eastwood’s long career, and it is on track to become his top-grossing film worldwide.

     

    Warner Bros. Pictures president of domestic distribution Dan Fellman said, “The filmmakers, led by Clint Eastwood, and cast, led by Bradley Cooper and Sienna Miller, have created a gripping drama with a rare insight into the toll of war that has resonated with audiences in almost every demographic. We congratulate them not only on the film’s box office success but on generating one of the most talked about films of this or any year.”

     

    Eastwood directed American Sniper from a screenplay written by Jason Hall, based on the book by Chris Kyle, with Jim DeFelice and Scott McEwen. Bradley Cooper and Sienna Miller star in the film, produced by Eastwood, Robert Lorenz, Andrew Lazar, Cooper and Peter Morgan. Tim Moore, Jason Hall, Sheroum Kim, Steven Mnuchin and Bruce Berman served as executive producers.

     

    The movie has earned six Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture, Best Actor (Cooper), and Best Adapted Screenplay (Jason Hall). In addition, Eastwood was honoured by his peers with his fourth Directors Guild of America Award nomination and also won the National Board of Review Award for Best Director. The film’s other honours include a Producers Guild of America Award nomination, a Writers Guild of America Award nomination, and a BAFTA Award nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay.

  • Half of Oscar sound nominations go to Dolby Atmos films

    Half of Oscar sound nominations go to Dolby Atmos films

    MUMBAI: Dolby Laboratories has announced that almost half of the nominations going to Oscar this year were Dolby Atmos films. Three Dolby Atmos films, American Sniper , The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies, and Unbroken were nominated in the sound editing category for the 87th Academy Awards®. Two of those titles were also nominated in the sound mixing category: American Sniper and Unbroken.

     

    Dolby Atmos allows filmmakers unprecedented precision in designing a movie soundtrack. They can place and move sounds anywhere in a theatre, including over the audience’s head, to make viewers feel like they’re inside the story. Dolby Atmos debuted in June 2012 in the Oscar winning animated film Brave. The technology is now available for home theaters and on mobile devices.

     

    The other films nominated for sound editing—Birdman  and Interstellar and for sound mixing—Birdman, Interstellar, and Whiplash—all used Dolby surround sound technology.

     

    This is the 37th consecutive year that films released with Dolby® audio technologies have earned Academy Award nominations for outstanding sound quality.

     

    American Sniper received six nominations in all, including one for best picture. Dolby Atmos films also received two of the five nominations for best animated feature, with Big Hero 6 and How to Train Your Dragon 2 getting nods.

     

    The announcement came along with some proud moments for the Dolby Atmos team when the production teams of the nominated movies credited Dolby Atmos for being able to provide them the technology which completely understood the demands of the scene. 

     

    The Unbroken sound team credits Dolby Atmos with helping put the audience in the extreme situations that World War II hero Louis Zamperini experienced—hurtling airplanes, vast oceans, and oppressive jungles.

     

    “This film was served well by [Dolby] Atmos,” said Monta?o, the sound rerecording mixer. The effect “was subtle, but very precise.”

     

    “When you’re in the ocean, when you’re in the jungle and you hear the bugs, you just feel like you’re in that space,” said Andrew DeCristofaro, the supervising sound editor. “It feels more realistic.”

     

    Director Peter Jackson and his team have used Dolby Atmos for each of the three Hobbit movies. Jackson says their knowledge of how to use the technology has evolved. “Each year now, we’ve managed to do different things as our knowledge of how to best use it expanded,” Jackson says.

     

    Dolby Atmos helps fill out the sound environment and make it match the action on the screen, according to rerecording mixer Michael Hedges. “It’s great to have Dolby on our side.”

     

    The creators of American Sniper decided to keep the film’s music to a minimum and “score” the film with realistic sounds, according to film industry site Below the Line. That meant long recording sessions with the actual guns used by Navy SEAL sniper Chris Kyle and his comrades and even tracking down a plane with the same engine as the early Predator drones.

     

    Take a look at the full list of Oscar nominees. The winners will be announced on February 22 at the Dolby Theatre® in Hollywood.

  • 87th Oscar’s hit by racist row

    87th Oscar’s hit by racist row

    MUMBAI: Heard of the “white” Oscars anytime? Well this year could be the time when the term could come into existence. As the world gears up to view the mother-of-all award ceremonies, it has been hit with a new row. The prestigious awards for this year have been hit by allegations of being racist in nature as since 1988, no non-white actors were found be making the cut in the four major categories.

     

    For the year 2015, 20 actors nominated in the categories such as Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actress and Best Supporting Actor are all white. The year 1988 was one such year when no non-white actors made it to the list and the report is seen this year.

     

    The lack of variety prompted netizens to take to the micro blogging site Twitter to express their anguish. This resulted in the creation of the online trend #OscarsSoWhite, which is currently trending on Twitter.

     

    Meanwhile acclaimed directors like Wes Anderson and Alejandro González I?árritu’s are caught in a neck to neck battle as both their films have received a total number on nine nominations. Wes Anderson has directed the offbeat dramedy “The Grand Budapest Hotel,” while I?árritu’s has directed the genre-defying film, “Birdman.”

     

    The movies that have made it to the list for the 87th Oscar Awards are as follows:

    1) American Sniper

    2) Birdman

    3) Boyhood

    4) The Grand Budapest Hotel

    5) The Imitation Game

    6) Selma

    7) The Theory of Everything

    8) Whiplash

     

  • First trailer of Bradley Cooper starring ‘American Sniper’ Released

    First trailer of Bradley Cooper starring ‘American Sniper’ Released

    MUMBAI: Directed by Clint Eastwood and starring Bradley Cooper, the first trailer for the war drama American Sniper was released on 3 October.

     

    The actor stars as real-life Navy SEAL Chris Kyle in American Sniper, who served multiple tours of duty in Iraq and was heavily decorated for his service, has taken credit for 160 confirmed kills. The drama is based on the 2013 memoir of Chris Kyle, who was regarded as ‘the most lethal sniper in U.S. military history.’

     

    Kyle, whose book was a best-seller, was shot and killed at a Texas gun range in February 2013. He was 38 years old.

     

    The official synopsis of the movie says, “From director Clint Eastwood comes “American Sniper,” starring Bradley Cooper as Chris Kyle, the most lethal sniper in U.S. military history.  But there was much more to him than his skill as a sharpshooter.  U.S. Navy SEAL Chris Kyle is sent to Iraq with only one mission: to protect his brothers-in-arms.  His pinpoint accuracy saves countless lives on the battlefield and, as stories of his courageous exploits spread, he earns the nickname ‘Legend’.  However, his reputation is also growing behind enemy lines, putting a price on his head and making him a prime target of insurgents.  He is also facing a different kind of battle on the home front: striving to be a good husband and father from halfway around the world.  Despite the danger, as well as the toll on his family at home, Chris serves through four harrowing tours of duty in Iraq, personifying the SEAL creed to ‘leave no man behind’.  But upon returning to his wife, Taya Renae Kyle (Sienna Miller), and kids, Chris finds that it is the war he can’t leave behind.”

     

    Co-starring Sienna Miller, Jake McDorman, Luke Grimes, Navid Negahan and Keir O’Donnell, American Sniper opens in limited release on Christmas Day and goes wide on 16 January 2015. The movie has been produced by Cooper.

     

    The trailer highlights the precarious balance Kyle faces as he balances his military duties with his home life.

     

    Click here to watch the trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cRbAXWfthtA

     

    The movie is slated to release on Christmas this year.

     

    Cooper, who voiced Rocket Racoon in the summer blockbuster Guardians of the Galaxy, has received past Academy Award nominations for Silver Linings Playbook and American Hustle.

  • Steven Spielberg opts out of directing ‘American Sniper’

    Steven Spielberg opts out of directing ‘American Sniper’

    MUMBAI: After having declared that he would be directing the movie about celebrated Navy Seal Chris Kyle, the Jurassic Park director has decided to not be a part of the project. DreamWorks, that joined Warner Bros in a co-production after Spielberg announced his association, has also decided to pull out of the film.

     

    The movie scripted by Jason Hall, has Bradley Cooper in the lead role. Cooper is also producing along with Andrew Lazar and Peter Morgan.

     

    This is the second time the acclaimed director has changed his priorities. He had previously pushed the filming of Robocalypse to a further date as he says he wants to redevelop it. The sudden change in plans is pointed to his keenness to follow up on Lincoln.

     

    Warner Bros will now have to look for another filmmaker to keep the movie on board. Spielberg is known to have his projects perfected to the T before he commits to them.