--- description: The Bradley Cooper film has made more money than the other seven best picture nominees combined title: Why "American Sniper" Was the Only Oscar Movie That Made Big Money image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc72d7c844f514807/69877fac5f570f18dab15519/as-fp-0141.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [Entertainment](/section/entertainment/) ## Entertainment Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close * [movies](/tag/movies/) ## movies Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # Why _American Sniper_ Was the Only Oscar Movie That Made Big Money ## Video: 10 Questions with American Sniper Chris Kyle [Watch (HLS stream): 10 Questions with American Sniper Chris Kyle](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/PpZTJML8.m3u8) (6:10)  _Published 2012-01-05. Navy SEAL Chris Kyle, who earned two Silver Stars in Iraq, explains the sniper's point of view_  by [Eliana Dockterman](/author/eliana-dockterman/)  ## Eliana Dockterman Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Correspondent Feb 18, 2015 6:48 PM CUT  Bradley Cooper as Chris Kyle in Warner Bros. Pictures' and Village Roadshow Pictures' American Sniper. Bradley Cooper as Chris Kyle in Warner Bros. Pictures' and Village Roadshow Pictures' American Sniper.Warner Bros.  by [Eliana Dockterman](/author/eliana-dockterman/)  ## Eliana Dockterman Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Correspondent Feb 18, 2015 6:48 PM CUT _Birdman_ may be widely perceived as the Oscar frontrunner for best picture, but _American Sniper_ has already destroyed its competition at the box office. Despite being the worst-reviewed Oscar contender (with a 72% on Rotten Tomatoes), the film has earned a whopping $306.5 million domestically so far, more than the other seven best picture Oscar nominees _combined_. Even Bradley Cooper [admits](http://www.usatoday.com/story/life/movies/2015/02/02/bradley-cooper-american-sniper-impact/22775661/ "undefined") he can’t explain the film’s success. But here’s a theory—and, no, it has nothing to do with that [fake baby](http://time.com/3674870/american-sniper-fake-baby/ "undefined"). In a terrible year at the box office, _American Sniper_ soared when other Oscar contenders flailed because it advertised itself as a war movie, not a prestige film. 2014 was a bad year at the box office in general: moviegoing hit a [two-decade low](http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/box-office-2014-moviegoing-hits-760766 "undefined"). But Oscar movies performed particularly poorly. _American Sniper_ was the only best picture nominee to cross the $100 million mark. _The_ _Imitation Game_ came in at a distant second with $79.7 million, and _Grand Budapest Hotel_ took the third spot with $59.1 million. Studios never expect prestige dramas to make as much as blockbusters like _Guardians of the Galaxy_ or even _Fifty Shades of Grey._ But in 2013, four best picture contenders grossed over $100 million at the box office: _Gravity_ ($274 million), _American Hustle_ ($150.1 million), _The Wolf of Wall Street_ ($116.9 million) and _Captain Phillips_ ($107.1 million). In 2012, five films—_Lincoln_, _Django Unchained_, _Les Miserables_, _Silver Linings Playbook_ and _Life of Pi—_all surpassed that $100 million benchmark. In comparison, this year’s Oscar hopefuls look like they’re limping to the finish line. Let’s assume that the controversy surrounding _American Sniper_—whether real-life sniper Chris Kyle was a hero or a murderer, a patriot or a liar—had little to do with its massive success compared to the other Oscar contenders. Every prestige biopic from this year (_Selma_, _The Imitation Game_, _Foxcatcher_, _The Theory of Everything_) has come under fire for factual inaccuracies or subversive politics. If controversy were all that drove ticket sales, at least a few of those films would have been hits, too. Let’s also assume that this wasn’t all Bradley Cooper and director Clint Eastwood’s doing. Neither has the star power to guarantee a hit. Up until this point, Cooper hasn’t carried a movie on his own—_The Hangover_, _Silver Linings Playbook_, _American Hustle_ and even _Guardians of the Galaxy_ have all been ensemble films with A-list casts. And Eastwood hadn’t had a hit since _Gran Torino_ in 2008\. Just six months before _American Sniper_ hit theaters, his last directorial effort, _Jersey Boys_, tanked at the box office. _American Sniper_ did have a major advantage over much its competition: it played in more theaters. The 2015 Oscars are dominated by arthouse films. From _Boyhood_ and _Birdman_ to _Whiplash_ and _Grand Budapest Hotel_, many of the standout movies were distributed by specialty divisions of major studios; therefore, they received limited releases. That’s not to say that _American Sniper_‘s massive success was predestined. The film cost just $23 million to produce, bringing it far closer to _Birdman’_s $18 million price tag than _Gravity’_s $100 million. But bigger movies like _Imitation Game_ were just as widely distributed, but not nearly as widely seen. No, the key to _American Sniper’_s success lies in its promotions. While all the other Oscar movies were sold as prestige films—trotting out their film festival laurels or punctuating British accents with dramatic piano music—_American Sniper_ sold itself as a good, old-fashioned, edge-of-your-seat war flick. Just watch the first trailer: As it turns out, Americans would rather watch a nail-biter than a meditation on childhood, fame, brilliance or whatever else the latest Oscar films might be meditating on this year. Here’s the real question: _Is Bradley Cooper going to shoot that kid?_ It’s hard to think of a better way to lure butts into seats. What was particularly brilliant is that they aired this (literally) heart-thumping trailer during football games, capturing the key demographic that made another real-life Navy SEAL movie, _Lone Survivor_ starring Mark Wahlberg, a hit at the top of 2014\. Both films pay tribute to the hard choices soldiers are forced to make on a daily basis. For _Lone Survivor’_s Marcus Luttrell it was whether to capture or even kill some innocent mountain herders who might report his whereabouts to the Taliban leader he was sent to kill; for _American Sniper’_s Chris Kyle, it’s whether to shoot a boy who may be trying to blow up his comrades. This helped Chris Kyle’s story reach outside the tight circle of largely liberal-leaning folks writing about and voting for Oscar films. Though New York and Los Angeles have the highest concentration of moviegoers and usually fuel successful films, _American Sniper_‘s audience trended toward the heartland. Eight of the top 10 markets for _American Sniper_ were in the South or Midwest—in cities like San Antonio, Oklahoma City and Nashville—[according to](http://www.wsj.com/articles/america-embraces-american-sniper-1421705164 "undefined") the Wall Street _Journal_. Whether the movie is pro-war or not ([screenwriter Jason Hall would argue _not_](http://time.com/3669653/american-sniper-screenwriter-controversy/ "undefined")), its campaign appealed to conservatives excited to see notorious Hollywood right-winger Clint Eastwood’s take on the Iraq War. (Other Iraq war movies like _The Hurt Locker_ and _Green Zone_ have mostly been helmed by liberal directors, and haven’t done nearly as well at the box office.) It also spoke to Christians who could ascribe to Chris Kyle’s priorities, as spelled out in his autobiography: “God. Country. Family.” So while Hollywood celebrates [a film](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1065073/ "undefined") in which a young boy helps his father distribute Obama signs on Texas lawns, the rest of America will be watching another man—who grew up in a very different part of Texas—target an Iraqi in his crosshairs. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3712801/american-sniper-oscars-box-office/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3712801/american-sniper-oscars-box-office/"},"headline":"Why American Sniper Was the Only Oscar Movie That Made Big Money","datePublished":"2015-02-18T18:48:01.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T04:29:52.145Z","description":"The film, starring Bradley Cooper, has made more money than the other seven best picture nominees combined","url":"https://time.com/3712801/american-sniper-oscars-box-office/","keywords":["movies","Oscars"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc72d7c844f514807/69877fac5f570f18dab15519/as-fp-0141.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Eliana Dockterman","jobTitle":"Correspondent","url":"https://time.com/author/eliana-dockterman/"}],"articleSection":"Entertainment","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc72d7c844f514807/69877fac5f570f18dab15519/as-fp-0141.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"AMERICAN SNIPER","caption":"AMERICAN SNIPER","creditText":"Warner Bros.","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/entertainment/","name":"Entertainment"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/movies/","name":"movies"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3712801/american-sniper-oscars-box-office/","name":"Why American Sniper Was the Only Oscar Movie That Made Big Money"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"10 Questions with American Sniper Chris Kyle","description":"Navy SEAL Chris Kyle, who earned two Silver Stars in Iraq, explains the sniper's point of view","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/PpZTJML8/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2012-01-05T23:07:27.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/PpZTJML8.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/3712801/american-sniper-oscars-box-office/","duration":"PT6M10S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/3712801/american-sniper-oscars-box-office/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```