HOLLYWOOD – American Sniper has set its sights on another record: Within a matter of days, it will overtake Steven Spielberg’s WWII classic Saving Private Ryan to become the top-grossing war-themed film of all time in North America, not accounting for inflation.
Clint Eastwood’s history-making movie jumped the $200 million mark on Sunday, putting it ahead of Michael Bay’s Pearl Harbor, another WWII title topping out at $198.5 million domestically in 2001. American Sniper is distinct from those two film in being set during a modern-day conflict.
Saving Private Ryan, released in 1998, earned $216.7 million […] Sniper will cross $216 million sometime this week for Warner Bros. and Village Roadshow. (more…)

(Via ITV) The Japanese government is ‘looking into’ a video purporting to be from Islamic State militants claiming to have killed one of two Japanese men being held hostage.
In the clip posted online – which features only a still image and audio – journalist Kenji Goto Jogo is shown in an orange jumpsuit as a narrator claims that fellow captive Haruna Yukawa has been murdered.

“You did not take the threats of my captives seriously and you did not act within 72 hours. To my beloved wife I love you. And I miss my two daughters. Please do not let them do the same in my case. You must continue to pressure our government.” (link)

In the video statement, which is read in English, the militant group is now demanding the release of an Islamist prisoner – named Sajida al-Rishawi – in his exchange for Jogo’s release. (more…)

Love, love, love, this little insider peek:

[Warner Bros. Distribution President Dan Fellman] joyfully recounted the phone call he placed to Eastwood last weekend, when he said “Clint, this is your biggest [opening] weekend ever.”
How’d he respond? “He’s the coolest dude on the planet, you know,” Fellman said. “He said, ‘Gee, man, that’s great.'”
Warner Bros. has been in business with Eastwood for many years, Fellman added — but “this kind of thing certainly required a phone call to the house.”

CNN MONEY – […] Indeed, it’s commanded the attention of the entire motion picture industry — and that attention is now turning toward this weekend, when the movie expands to 3,705 screens, 150 more than it was on last weekend.
The new record: this is the “widest release ever for an R-rated movie,” according to the definitive industry news site Box Office Mojo. (more…)

The anti-American leftists are apoplectic… “how can this be so”? Coast to coast movie theaters continue to be filled with enthusiastic patriots willingly forking over their hard earned money to see a movie fraught with patriotic sentiment.  The crowds are so large the professionally liberal are now retreating from their earlier antagonistic positions.
Heading into week #2 American Sniper continues to draw massive audiences and there’s still 10 days left to rack up even more records for a movie that has already blown out previous January records for box office releases.
VARIETY – After a record-breaking wide-release debut over the Martin Luther King holiday, “American Sniper” will loom large at the box office for the second weekend in a row.
Analysts didn’t see Clint Eastwood’s look at the life of Navy SEAL Chris Kyle coming, so it’s hard to figure out just how massive the film will continue to be now that it faces off against new projects from Jennifer Lopez and Johnny Depp. (more…)

“American Sniper,” the new Clint Eastwood film based on the real life story of Chris Kyle, has the Left jerking spasmodically in a puddle of their own vitriol. You see, Eastwood made a film where the American military man is a strong, masculine, good guy, not an ironic, sniffling, paste-bucket. In part one of this three-part Trifecta, Bill Whittle, Scott Ott and Stephen Green show why this is the worst thing that could happen to the left.
BILL WHITTLE

Americans love God, are patriotic, love the military, and have been under increasing leftist assault for almost 6 years. This is why Clint Eastwood’s patriotic movie about U.S. hero sniper Chris Kyle has hit at exactly the right time for a confluence of success.
The Box Office Records are being obliterated so fast the predictions of the Hollywood types are having to be revised upward by the hour – and the progressive Left is apoplectic in rage.
They.Just.Can’t.Stand.It !!
Leftist movie types like Michael Moore, and those of similar disposition who hate America, are having meltdowns at the success of American Sniper. They are so wound up with hate, they just don’t know what to do.

My uncle killed by sniper in WW2. We were taught snipers were cowards. Will shoot u in the back. Snipers aren't heroes. And invaders r worse

— Michael Moore (@MMFlint) January 18, 2015

And this one carries a double-whammy that only divinely ironic intervention could deliver.
This is MLK holiday weekend, and the MLK movie “Selma” is also playing in theaters, in empty theaters. The professional left in Hollywood produced Selma to further their political narrative, and they are failing miserably. (more…)

The Bowe Bergdahl investigation has been complete since last fall.   Back in September of 2014 the first media reports surfaced stating the Army investigation was finished and pending White House review.   In mid-December Chuck Hagel was briefed.

(Fox News) Last Sunday, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Martin Dempsey, indicated that he expected a decision “fairly soon” on whether the Army will court martial Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl for allegedly deserting his post in Afghanistan, or has cleared him, paving the way for separation from the service and back pay in excess of $200,000.
(more…)

(Via Deadline) American Sniper is huge. So huge that the Clint Eastwood-directed film could, by sunrise, make more in one day than any one of his films ever made in a weekend. Per late night industry estimates, the Warner Bros./Village Roadshow pic looks to gun down $29.1M in its first expanded Friday, within inches of blowing away Eastwood’s previous weekend high, 2009’s Gran Torino at $29.5M.
Hands down, American Sniper’s Friday booty ranks as the highest grossing day ever charted by a film in January – and that goes for an opening (previous record holder was 2008’s Cloverfield at $17.16M) and single day (prior was the $25.8M B.O. racked up by Avatar on Jan. 2, 2010).  (continue reading)

This commercial was winner of the Gouden Loeki 2014 (Dutch commercial award) – “We not only help people who cannot see, but also those who have seen too much. It’s only 30 seconds, but watch it and you’ll see why:

Asia Times Online,  Jan 16/2015:
Saudi reset with Iran unavoidable, as Saudi Prince Turki renames IS “Fahesh” (obscene)….

The terrorist strike last week on the Saudi border post facing the Iraqi province of Anbar — known to be the Islamic State’s first assault on the kingdom — could be the proverbial straw on the camel’s back, forcing Riyadh into a profound rethink of its regional strategies imbued with the rivalries involving Iran…
Tehran has effectively countered the Saudi plots in Syria and Iraq and at the moment would seem to have the upper hand. The last-ditch Saudi attempt to hurt the Iranian economy by forcing a steep decline in oil prices is not only not having the desired effect but, as President Hassan Rouhani explicitly warned yesterday, Riyadh may end up shooting at its own feet (as well as the Kuwaiti brother’s).

However, it is the attack on the Saudi post by the IS (killing two border guards and their commanding officer) that becomes a defining moment. The fact that the IS attackers included three Saudi nationals must be a rude awakening. To be sure, the blowback has begun. The Saudis hope to erect a ‘great wall’ and insulate themselves from the IS barbarians next door but that is sheer bravado.
(more…)