On the heels of receiving 10 Academy Award nominations – including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Screenplay, and all four acting categories – Columbia Pictures and Annapurna Pictures’ American Hustle has surpassed $200 million at the worldwide box office.
To date, the Atlas Entertainment Production starring Christian Bale, Amy Adams, Bradley Cooper, Jeremy Renner, and Jennifer Lawrence, has grossed $138.7 million in North America, setting a career high for director David O. Russell at the domestic box office, surpassing the $132.1 million take of Silver Linings Playbook.
American Hustle is now the highest-grossing film, both domestically and internationally, for Annapurna Pictures.
A fictional film set in the alluring world of one of the most extraordinary scandals of the 1970s, American Hustle tells the story of brilliant con man Irving Rosenfeld (Bale), who along with his equally cunning and seductive partner Sydney Prosser (Adams) is forced to work for a wild FBI agent Richie DiMaso (Cooper). DiMaso pushes them into a world of Jersey powerbrokers and mafia that’s as dangerous as it is enchanting. Renner is Carmine Polito, the passionate, volatile, New Jersey political operator caught between the con-artists and Feds. Irving’s unpredictable wife Rosalyn (Lawrence) could be the one to pull the thread that brings the entire world crashing down.
Commenting on the announcement, Jeff Blake, chairman, Worldwide Marketing and Distribution for Sony Pictures said, “Congratulations go to our filmmakers. David O. Russell has scored again with critics and audiences alike. He has delivered a tremendous film, one that has connected with moviegoers in every country around the world. I also want to congratulate Chuck Roven – a longtime friend and one of our industry’s prolific producers – on his first Oscar nomination, as well as his fellow producers, Richard Suckle, Megan Ellison, and Jonathan Gordon on their nominations. In fact, special congratulations go to Megan on becoming the first woman with two nominations for Best Picture in one year. They and their entire cast and crew dedicated themselves to David’s vision for a truly special film, and we’re excited and gratified by their success.”
Russell sees American Hustle as the third part in a trilogy of reinvention that began in The Fighter and continued in Silver Linings Playbook – and with this film, the themes play out on an even larger canvas.
American Hustle has also proven to be just as strong a player to international audiences, grossing $64 million to date in overseas markets, with territories including Germany, Russia and Korea yet to open. The film has opened #1 in six territories – UK, Australia, New Zealand, Spain, Portugal, and Greece – and the UK box office is so strong that American Hustle has nearly tripled the box office of Silver Linings Playbook in that territory. Annapurna’s international sales company, Panorama Media, has handled international sales of the film throughout the world. Sony Pictures distributes the film in the U.S., Latin America, South Africa, and Eastern Europe (excluding Russia and the Ukraine).
