'American Sniper' Is The Number One Movie Of 2014

This sounds crazy, but it's true: Mockingjay: Part 1 is not the top movie of 2014, despite what an unstoppable force The Hunger Games franchise has been at the theater. According to Deadline, American Sniper is now officially the highest grossing film of 2014 as of this weekend, bringing in a total of approximately $337,209,000 to Mockingjay's $336,961,655. Those two numbers are pretty close, but the fact that American Sniper has done better than Mockingjay is especially significant because it was released on Christmas Day, a month after Mockingjayhit theaters. A movie surpassing a powerhouse like that is a big deal in itself, but with such a big difference between the two movies' release dates? You go, American Sniper!

And even though American Sniper only took home one of the six Oscars it was nominated for, Bradley Cooper can now feel 100 percent confident in taking the role of the legendary real life sniper Chris Kyle (if he was feeling any doubt before, anyway). And I can't imagine Lionsgate or anyone else behind Mockingjayis upset about the loss, since $336 million isn't exactly anything to be ashamed at. Of course, as someone who will always choose to see movies like Mockingjay over anything like American Sniper — especially if Jennifer Lawrence is in it — I'm pretty surprised that it's taking second, but obviously, enough people were impressed by this movie that it beat the uprising of District 13 without missing a beat.

It'll definitely be interesting to see how Part 2 fares when it's released this fall, in comparison to whatever the studios have up their sleeve for releases late in the year this time around. I'm thinking the final installment will take the top spot in 2015, especially since it's the last time fans can show up at midnight with their side braids to see Katniss do her thing. Not that I do that. OK, fine. I totally do that.

Image: Getty