Angelina Jolie may not have wowed critics with Unbroken, but she’s certainly proven herself a director to watch with her true-life survival tale.
After collecting another $4.2 million at the box office this weekend (for a domestic total of $108.6 million on a production budget of $60 million), Unbroken has become the sleeper hit of the holiday/Oscar season. The sturdy box-office performance of the Louis Zamperini biopic makes it currently the 26th highest-grossing film of 2014 — and Jolie the most successful woman director of the past year.
Unbroken also garnered a best cinematography nomination from the 2015 Oscars, as well as a couple of technical nods.
All of this is great news for the nascent filmmaker, who will hopefully find a favorable distribution deal for her upcoming marital drama By the Sea, which will be the first time the Oscar-winning actress is directing herself. Jolie’s apparent interest in a Cleopatra epic (which the Sony hack revealed) also suggests that she’s interested in continuing to make big blockbusters — precisely the kind of studio project that has been so elusive to women directors.
We at Women and Hollywood may not be the hugest fans of Unbroken, but we certainly look forward to what the ever-surprising Jolie tackles next.
[via Box Office Mojo]
