Or not yet, anyway. While
American Sniper may be called the highest grossing "historical" war film "ever" by the usual idiots at
FoxNews using Wikipedia, it is
not the highest grossing film in its release year (2014) still being shown. So goes the film industry's hyperbolic PR apparatus where film reviewing as a type of horse race handicapping serves the industry's promotional purposes before providing an audience with actual critical scholarship.
In terms of measuring national interest in military marksmanship as mythical and heroic, Gary Cooper's Sargent York in 1941 as its year's highest grossing film, is more of an index of US engagement with a military cinematic message. By comparison, AS is only in fifth place (so far) in terms of worldwide grosses for 2014 releases.
So adjusted for inflation, AS doesn't come close to Pearl Harbor and Saving Private Ryan as the "highest grossing war film of all time". And given the global popularity of contemporary US wars, the worldwide grosses for AS may eventually fall off in the long run despite the unadjusted surge in domestic 2015 grosses signifying much about audiences for actual as opposed to fantasy war films.
Gary Cooper went on to win the Academy Award for Best Actor for his portrayal. The film also won for Best Film Editing and was nominated in nine other categories, including Best Picture, Director (Howard Hawks), Supporting Actor (Walter Brennan), and Supporting Actress (Margaret Wycherly). The American Film Institute ranked the film 57th in the its 100 most inspirational American movies. It also rated Alvin York 35th in its list of the top 50 heroes in American cinema.
At the 87th Academy Awards, American Sniper received six nominations, including Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Actor for Cooper, ultimately winning one award for Best Sound Editing