The Panda

Well, if it plays like Black Hawk Down it should look likje Friday: 20.1m Saturday: 28.1m Sunday: 21.1m Weekend: 69.3m Percentages a little different because no football for American Sniper's sunday.

Friday: 19.1m Saturday: 25.9m Sunday: 19.4m Weekend: 64.4m

Best Picture: 1.Boyhood 2.American Sniper 3.The Imitation Game 4.Birdman 5.Selma 6.The Grand Budapest Hotel 7.Whiplash 8.The Theory of Everything Best Director: 1.Richard Linklater for Boyhood 2.Morten Tyldum for the Imitation Game 3.Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu for Birdman 4.Wes Anderson for Grand Budapest Hotel 5.Bennett Miller for Foxcatcher Best Actor: 1.Michael Keaton for Birdman 2.Bradley Cooper for American Sniper 3.Eddie Redmayne for the Theory of Everything 4.Benedict Cumberbatch for the Imitation Game 5.Steve Carell for Foxcatcher Best Actress: 1.Julianne Moore for Still Alice 2.Marion Cotillard for Two Days One Night 3.Rosamund Pike for Gone Girl 4.Reece Witherspoon for Wild 5.Felicity Jones for The Theory of Everything Best Supporting Actor: 1.J.K. Simmons for Whiplash 2.Edward Norton for Birdman 3.Ethan Hawke for Boyhood 4.Mark Ruffalo for Foxcatcher 5.Robert Duvall for The Judge Best Supporting Actress: 1.Patricia Arquette for Boyhood 2.Emma Stone for Birdman 3.Laura Dern for Wild 4.Keira Knightley for The Imitation Game 5.Meryl Streep for Into the Woods Best Original Screenplay: 1.Birdman 2.The Grand Budapest Hotel 3.Boyhood 4.Foxcatcher 5.Nightcrawler Best Adapted Screenplay: 1.American Sniper 2.The Imitation Game 3.The Theory of Everything 4.Whiplash 5.Inherent Vice Best Film Editing: 1.Boyhood 2.Whiplash 3.American Sniper 4.The Imitation Game 5.The Grand Budapest Hotel Best Cinematography: 1.Birdman 2.The Grand Budapest Hotel 3.Ida 4.Mr. Turner 5.Unbroken Best Production Design: 1.The Grand Budapest Hotel 2.Into the Woods 3.The Imitation Game 4.Interstellar 5.Mr. Turner Best Costumes: 1.The Grand Budapest Hotel 2.Into the Woods 3.Mr. Turner 4.Maleficent 5.Inherent Vice Best Makeup: 1.Guardians of the Galaxy 2.Grand Budapest Hotel 3.Foxcatcher Best Visual Effects: 1.Guardians of the Galaxy 2.Interstellar 3.Dawn of the Planet of the Apes 4.X-Men: Days of Future Past 5.Captain America: The Winter Soldier Best Sound: 1.American Sniper 2.Whiplash 3.Birdman 4.Interstellar 5.Unbroken Best Sound Editing: 1.American Sniper 2.Birdman 3.Interstellar 4.The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies 5.Unbroken Best Score: 1.The Theory of Everything 2.The Grand Budapest Hotel 3.The Imitation Game 4.Interstellar 5.Mr. Turner Best Song: 1."Everything is Awesome" from The LEGO Movie 2."Glory" from Selma 3."Lost Stars" from Being Again 4."I'm Not Going to Miss You" from Glen Campbell: I'll Be Me 5."Grateful" from Beyond the Lights Best Animated Feature: 1.The Tale of the Princess Kaguya 2.Big Hero 6 3.How to Train Your Dragon 2 4.Song of the Sea 5.The Boxtrolls Best Foreign Language film: 1.Ida 2.Leviathan 3.Timbuktu 4.Tangerines 5.Wild Tales Best Documentary Feature: 1.Citizenfour 2.Virunga 3.Last Days in Vietnam 4.Finding Vivian Maier 5.The Salt of the Earth Best Documentary Short: 1.Crisis Hotline: Veterans Press 1 2.Joanna 3.Our Curse 4.The Reaper (La Parka) 5.White Earth Best Animated Short: 1.Feast 2.Me and My Moulton 3.The Bigger Picture 4.The Dam Keeper 5.A Single Life Best Live Action Short: 1.The Phone Call 2.Boogaloo and Graham 3.Aya 4.Butter Lamp (La Lampe au beurre de yak) 5.Parvaneh

I think it should follow somewhere between Lone Survivor and Black Hawk Down

Actually, if you don't count Sniper as #1 of 2014 than neither was MJ1, because Guardians made more in 2014 than it.

It went up from RTH's estimate yesterday, I could see 7.7m Also, this is really hitting home with the conservative and religious crowd, Wednesday church probably had a small dent as well as coming off of Cheap Tuesday. Id think Thursday stays flat and so Thursday: 7.6m Friday: 19m Saturday: 25.7m Sunday: 20.6m (No football this Sunday) 2nd Weekend: 65.3m

How is it an expansion and also considered as the largest OPENING weekend in January. It's a wide opening, just like Frozen was a wide opening when it expanded from a platform release. I could understand if it went from say 500 theaters to 1500 theaters, but it went from 4 to 3,555. 4 theaters is pretty much payed pre-screening. If Box office mojo is counting it as an opening weekend, I see why none of us shouldn't as well.

Yeah, if AS has the record for biggest OW in January than it should be considered a 2015 opening.

I'm just going to call BS on that. When we talk about OW we mean the wide opening, technically it did expand, but it went from 5 theaters to a massive wide release. It's not like Grand Budapest which added and lost and added theaters throughout its run, it's pretty evident that this weekend was its opening. I don't really care if AS counts as 2014 or 2015 but it counts as an over 40m OW, there is no controversy in that.

But then Frozen's shouldn't have counted last year. It should be 40m+ OW within the year.

You saw Two Towers yet had no desire to see Return of the King

I applaud you for this and agree very highly.

Yeah, that's why I put /adult drama as well. I don't necessarily think we need them all to be rated R, but I do think we should have more tentpoles (or movies marketed and treated as such) that's target audience is older oriented, because it's obvious that audience is there and ready to eat those movies up when they respond well. Gravity was PG-13, but it was hitting mostly the same audience that movies like Gone Girl, American Hustle, Wolf of Wall Street, and American Sniper were.

Even though I wasn't huge on Sniper, I hope it wins the year still. I like Eastwood, I like Cooper, and I want Hollywood to push for more R rated/adult drama tentpoles like American Sniper, Gravity, Wolf of Wall Street, and Gone Girl.

Just to clarify I mean Fifty Shades 4 day over American Sniper 4 day

I will take both of these I bet 50 points to two people Jupiter Ascending opens over 22.5m I bet 50 points to two people Fifty Shades of Grey OW over American Sniper (4-Day) I bet 50 points to two people Kingsman: Secret Service opens over 15m I bet 50 points to two people American Sniper is over 300m DOM

I take in everything on the screen when I watch so it was very jarring for me.

I read his autobiography, and there is no kid with a drill, there is no enemy sniper (I figured that much), Eastwood does overdo many of those situations to make the Americans look more like heroes. My problem isn't that the guy was like how he was in the book, my problem was the fact that Eastwood did not show how the guy actually was, he sugarcoated him and made him look a lot more heroic and have much more of inner struggle about killing than he actually did. There are definitely some hints that Eastwood puts in the film to hint at the more accurate version of Kyle, but it never shows on the way he acts. There are also smalls pieces that Eastwood puts throughout to give a smarter viewer an idea of an anti-war movie, but if you miss them (which most of the people I have seen comment on the movie have) it appears blindly patriotic. I think most of the complaints about Kyle not being that great of person aren't aimed at the fact that there shouldn't be an American Sniper movie, but that the American Sniper movie we got portrays Kyle to be almost identical to your cut-and-paste American War Hero caricature.

I'm downgrading to a B-, I started reading into the guy's autobiography because I was curious why so many people on here were mad about the portrayal. Action scenes are really well crafted and entertaining, and it does do a good job at showing the marriage relation, but wow Eastwood really, really idealized him. I figured he sugarcoated him a little, but I was disgusted with the man I was reading from in the autobiography. The movie wouldn't have sold if he portrayed it accurately, I understand, but this movie really did glorify a man who had a sick love for killing. Not exploring that aspect is a really bad move in my opinion.

It's not what movies you do or don't like, but your reasoning behind it. "I'm not going to see a movie because it's an art movie." All movies are art, deal with it. For example, I can respect Baumer's opinions here (somebody who people here disagree with a lot) even if some of them fire up eye rolling flames, because he has thorough reasonings for why he likes what he likes. He also doesn't criticize a movie for being art. Criticizing a well-beloved movie on a movie forum, saying its, "Artsy Fartsy," is the equivalent of going to an art museum and telling everyone around you why the Picasso painting (that you didn't even look at) sucks because it was artistic.

I'm not a huge fan of drive either (although I can appreciate what it tried to do), but what irks me is thinking that a film being art (and all films are art, some art is just shitty) makes it bad. One of the most moronic things I have heard in a long time.

There really is no hope for you and cognitive abilities.

I'd reckon your taste in film sucks, not drive. Sorry, I'm being harsh about it, but anyone who thinks film shouldn't be art (which is a contradiction in itself) doesn't have an opinion worth taking seriously.

Oh my gosh, a filmmaker makes a film that's art? How dare they! It's not like Clint Eastwood wasn't also making art with American Sniper. And it's not like film and movies are a form of art or anything.