Clint Eastwood's new film American Sniper is soaring at the box office as it brought in $30.5 million in the North American market.

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The movie, starring Bradley Cooper, is also expected to surpass predictions over the weekend with a debut of $75 million to $80 million. Those numbers would make American Sniper the biggest movie debut ever in January.

The film is based on the real-life story of Navy SEAL Chris Kyle who served in Afghanistan and became known as one of the most skillful snipers in American military history.

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Despite it's immediate success, the movie has received some backlash from people who don't feel the fallen sniper should be praised as a war hero. At the recent D.C. premiere of the film, Cooper explained the intent of the film.

"Our whole idea was to do a character study about a soldier, and a soldier and a family, and what it's like having to deal with the schizophrenic nature of having to jostle between a home life and being in theater. I think hopefully it could be a universal story," he told The Daily Beast.

The film received six Academy Award nominations, including best actor for Mr. Cooper. However, Eastwood didn't get a nomination as best director.

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