Lone Survivor
Lone Survivor is a 2013 American biographical war film based on the 2007 nonfiction book of the same name by Marcus Luttrell with Patrick Robinson. Set during the war in Afghanistan, it dramatizes the unsuccessful United States Navy SEALs counter-insurgent mission Operation Red Wings, during which a four-man SEAL reconnaissance and surveillance team was given the task of tracking down the Taliban leader Ahmad Shah. The film was written and directed by Peter Berg, and stars Mark Wahlberg, Taylor Kitsch, Emile Hirsch, Ben Foster, and Eric Bana.
This article is about the film. For other uses, see Lone Survivor (disambiguation).Lone Survivor
Peter Berg
- Peter Berg
- Sarah Aubrey
- Randall Emmett
- Norton Herrick
- Barry Spikings
- Akiva Goldsman
- Mark Wahlberg
- Stephen Levinson
- Vitaly Grigoriants
Colby Parker Jr.
- Emmett/Furla Films
- Film 44
- Foresight Unlimited
- Herrick Entertainment
- Spikings Entertainment
- Envision Entertainment
- Closest to the Hole Productions
- Leverage Management
- Universal Pictures (USA, UK, Ireland, and Italy)
- Foresight Unlimited (Worldwide)
- November 12, 2013 (AFI Film Festival)
- December 25, 2013 (United States)
121 minutes[1]
United States
English
$40 million[2]
$154.8 million[2]
Upon first learning of the book in 2007, Berg arranged several meetings with Luttrell to discuss adapting the book to film. Universal Pictures acquired the film rights in August 2007, after bidding against other major studios. In re-enacting events, Berg drew much of his screenplay from Luttrell's eyewitness accounts in the book, as well as autopsy and incident reports related to the mission. After directing Battleship (2012) for Universal, Berg resumed working on Lone Survivor. Principal photography began in October 2012 and concluded in November, after 42 days. Filming took place on location in New Mexico, using digital cinematography. Luttrell and several other Navy SEAL veterans acted as technical advisors, while multiple branches of the United States Armed Forces aided the production. Two companies, Industrial Light & Magic and Image Engine, created the visual effects.
Lone Survivor opened in limited release in the United States on December 25, 2013, before opening across North America on January 10, 2014. It received generally positive reviews; critics praised Berg's direction and realism, as well as the acting, story, visuals and battle sequences, though some criticism was directed at the film's focus on action rather than characterization. It grossed over $154 million, of which $125 million was from North America. It was chosen by National Board of Review as one of the top ten films of 2013 and received two Oscar nominations for Best Sound Editing and Best Sound Mixing.
Ali Suliman, who previously collaborated with Berg on the 2007 film The Kingdom, plays Mohammad Gulab, an Afghan villager.[4]: 43 Alexander Ludwig plays Navy SEAL Machinist's Mate Shane Patton.[3] Marcus Luttrell appears in an uncredited role. The cast is rounded out by Yousuf Azami as Ahmad Shah, a Taliban leader; Sammy Sheik as Taraq, a field commander of the Taliban group;[5] Rich Ting as SO2 James Suh; Dan Bilzerian as Senior Chief Special Operator (SOCS) Daniel Healy; Jerry Ferrara as United States Marine Corps Sgt Hasslert; Scott Elrod as Peter Musselman; Rohan Chand as Gulab's son; and Corey Large as US Navy SEAL Captain Kenney. Zarin Mohammad Rahimi, who acted as a technical advisor during production, appears as an elderly shepherd who discovers the four-man SEAL team during the mission; Nicholas Patel and Daniel Arroyo play the goat herders who assist the shepherd.[3]
Release[edit]
Strategy[edit]
Berg first screened Lone Survivor to a number of professional American football teams to generate a strong word of mouth for the film. He expressed that the screenings were not a marketing ploy, explaining that it was "just a cool thing to do."[56] Lone Survivor was screened to the Dallas Cowboys,[57] Denver Broncos,[58] Carolina Panthers, and Cleveland Browns as well as the University of Alabama Crimson Tide football team.[59] The film received a generally positive response from several football players who took to social media to praise the film.[56] A gala premiere screening of Lone Survivor was held during the AFI Film Festival at the TCL Chinese Theatre on November 12, 2013.[60] Lone Survivor held its red carpet premiere on December 3, 2013, at the Ziegfeld Theatre in New York City, where the film received a standing ovation. The premiere also doubled as a tribute to the fallen servicemen of Operation Red Wings; in addition to several cast and crew members, Marcus Luttrell and family members of the deceased were in attendance. Mohammad Gulab, the Afghan villager who helped rescue Luttrell, also attended the premiere, marking his first time in New York City and in a movie theatre.[22]
In what the film industry calls a "platform release", Lone Survivor was released in a small number of theaters before opening wide in other countries; it opened in New York and Los Angeles on December 25, 2013, before being released across North America on January 10, 2014.[2][61][62] Entertainment One Films distributed the film in Canadian markets.[63] Buena Vista International released it in the Philippines on January 8, 2014.[64]
Box office[edit]
Lone Survivor's limited release in the United States saw it take $153,839—an average of $45,436 per theater—in its first five days.[65][66] The film grossed an additional $326,685 on the following weekend.[67] Pre-release tracking estimated that Lone Survivor would gross between $17 and $28 million during its opening weekend of wide release.[68] Released to a total of 2,875 theaters in the United States and Canada, The film grossed $14,403,750 on its opening day,[69] and by the end of its opening weekend it had grossed $38,231,471, securing the number-one position at the North American box office. Lone Survivor's opening-weekend gross made it the second-largest debut for any film released widely in January, after Cloverfield (2008), which opened with $40.1 million. It had also become the highest-grossing film among recent "post-9/11 war films", surpassing Brothers (2009), which ended its North American theatrical run with over $28.5 million.[70][71][72]
The film saw a significant drop in attendance during its second weekend of wide release; it had earned $6,665,470, which was a 135.4% increase from its opening Friday. However, by the end of its second weekend, the film earned $25,929,570, a 41.7% overall decrease from the previous weekend.[73] As a result, Lone Survivor went from first to second place behind the action-comedy film Ride Along.[74] The film remained in second place during its third weekend, grossing an additional $12,900,960, which was a 41.5% decrease from its second weekend.[75] It grossed an additional $7,096,330 during its fourth weekend, moving to fifth place in the top 10 rankings.[76] Lone Survivor remained in fifth place during its fifth weekend, grossing an additional $5,565,860, which was a 21.6% decrease from the previous weekend.[77] By its sixth weekend, the film went from fifth place to ninth, earning $4,086,435.[78] By its seventh weekend, Lone Survivor had dropped out of the top ten, earning an additional $1,978,380.[79] Lone Survivor completed its theatrical run in North America on April 10, 2014, after 107 days (15.3 weeks) of release.[80]
Lone Survivor grossed $125,095,601 in the United States and Canada;[2] coupled with its international take of $29,707,311, the film accumulated $154,802,912 in worldwide box office totals.[2][61] Outside of North America, the film's biggest markets were in Australia, the United Kingdom, Spain, Japan, France, South Korea, and Germany; the film grossed approximately $3.5 million in Australia, $3.4 million in the United Kingdom, $2.5 million in Spain, $2.2 million in Japan, $1.5 million in France, $1.2 million in South Korea, and $1 million in Germany.[61] In North America, Lone Survivor is the 24th-highest-grossing film of 2013,[81] and the sixth-highest-grossing R-rated film of that year.[82]
Home media[edit]
Lone Survivor was released on Blu-ray and DVD on June 3, 2014, by Universal Pictures Home Entertainment in the United States.[83] On August 9, 2016, it had a 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray release in the United States and in the UK on September 26, 2016.[84] In the United Kingdom, the film was released on both home video formats on June 9, 2014.[85]