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Jason Barney: This opening for American Sniper is huge, and it blew my expectations out of the water. I didn’t think this was possible for a film about America’s most recent military exploits overseas. It is impossible to remove politics from the movie, as its subject matter is so recent and tied with the occupation of Iraq. Part of my thoughts about a much slimmer opening revolved around the other most recent war films set in Middle East. Kim Hollis went into some detail about this while observing the Friday numbers, and the Weekend Wrap_Up also provides some perspective. Put simply, when comparing it to other Iraq/Afghanistan war openings, something like this really didn’t seem possible. Lone Survivor’s opening was half this amount. Zero Dark Thirty’s initial weekend was one third. 2010’s Green Zone and all the others don’t even compare.

I think a number of factors came together for this to be successful, and the combination of them is what probably led to such a smashing opening. First, many people were taken with the trailer and marketing campaign, as stories about snipers tend to draw a bit more interest.

Second, Bradley Cooper has made some amazing career choices and has moved quite a bit beyond his Hangover days. Just in the last couple of years he reprised his Hangover role leading to at least financial success with that franchise. Silver Linings Playbook really expanded his acting, and even his smaller projects like The Place Beyond the Pines have been successful. Voice involvement with Guardians of the Galaxy was another feather in his cap, as that was one of the stories of the year for 2014. With this opening, the man is on fire.

Also, despite being an old actor who starred in a bunch of westerns, Clint Eastwood has garnered quite a bit of respect for his creative efforts. Jersey Boys got a little attention, J. Edgar wasn’t great, but he was working with DiCaprio. Hereafter did fairly well overseas. Invictus was a success. Gran Torino certainly did well.

Finally, I think the film captured the patriotic vein in many Americans, and when you combine that with discussions about possible best picture nods, it all combined for a crazy successful opening. I can’t emphasize how large of an opening this is. This kind of opening? In January? Last year only eight films opened higher than that, and all of them were franchise related or comic book blockbusters. This is a monster opening.

Max Braden: Prior to the weekend I saw someone mention that American Sniper was tracking to be Clint Eastwood's biggest movie yet, and I thought to myself ("Bigger than Gran Torino? Unlikely.") This opening weekend number goes way, way, way beyond "unlikely". Sure, if you were looking at the limited release box office numbers, you would have seen something was brewing. But on paper, by all rights American Sniper should have come in second to Kevin Hart's movie this weekend. Sure, Gran Torino was a surprise hit for Clint Eastwood, but he starred in it as get-off-my-lawn grampa with a gun. Eastwood is only connected to American Sniper as director, and that hasn't been a box office gold mine for any of the movies he hasn't also acted in.

So there's Bradley Cooper then. He had a huge opening with The Hangover II, but he's usually successful with comedy and this is a war drama. So look at war drama. Why didn't Lone Survivor do these numbers? Because it wasn't nominated for Oscars? Then why didn't Zero Dark Thirty and The Hurt Locker explode in the same way? Is it because it's about a sniper? Captain Phillips featured the success of Navy SEAL snipers, and though it was released in October, long before even the Golden Globe nominations were announced, it only opened in second place. Anyone remember the WWII sniper movie Enemy at the Gates, released in 2001? I was there opening weekend and can recall no trouble finding a seat.

Do people realize that there was a fifth installment of Tom Berenger's long running Sniper franchise only a few months ago? The producers certainly didn't think so, since it was released directly to video. The only stretch I can make in my mind is that this war movie that appealed to Call of Duty gamers and young and old veterans at the same time. The head scratcher to me is, if we box office and movie fans were only taking interest in the movie as part of the Oscar nominations - who were all these other people that were so compelled to go see it?

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