Straight Outta Compton played in just 2,757 theaters, but averaged a muscular $20,348 per venue. The biopic of the rap group NWA appears to be a lock to become the highest-grossing rap film of all time, eclipsing 8 Mile, which starred Eminem, and earned $116.7 million in 2002. 8-Mile opened with $51.2 million and faded quickly, so the question is, will Straight Outta Compton suffer the same fate? Next weekend’s box office totals should provide the answer, but there are factors that should play out in Compton’s favor.
African-Americans made up 46% of Straight Outta Compton’s diverse audience that was also 23% Caucasian, 21% Hispanic, and 4% Asian. The audience for the R-rated biopic that also treats the perennially relevant topic of police brutality in the inner city was almost evenly split in gender (52% female) and age (51% over 30). With an 88% positive rating from the critics surveyed by Rotten Tomatoes and an “A” CinemaScore from opening weekend audiences, Compton does appear likely to set a new box office mark for both musical biopics and rap music films.
Second place went to the Tom Cruise-starring Mission: Impossible—Rogue Nation, which continued its solid box office performance, dropping just 40% in its third weekend as it added $17 million to bring its domestic total to $137.1 million.
Ironically Cruise was, at one time, supposed to star in the film version of Man From U.N.C.L.E. (as was George Clooney, which shows you how long this property has been “gestating” in studio hothouses). Guy Ritchie’s cheeky attempt to reinvigorate the 1960s spy movie genre will, unfortunately, have to depend on overseas grosses to make back its $80 million production cost. Ritchie’s overblown, glitzed up Sherlock Holmes movie had hot star Robert Downey, Jr. to drive it, while Man From U.N.C.L.E. has to depend on Henry Cavill and Arnie Hammer. Note to the Warner Bros./DC salary negotiating team: Henry Cavill (sans cape) sure can’t carry a movie by himself (or even with the Winkelvoss twins/actor in tow).
Ritchie’s U.N.C.L.E. film has gotten some decent notices (it currently has a 67% positive rating on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes), but the film’s mediocre “B” CinemaScore from opening weekend audiences does not bode well for its stateside prospects. The 60s spy spoof opened on 3,638 screens (nearly 1,000 more than Compton), but could manage only an anemic opening weekend average of $3,720.
Director Josh Trank helped torpedo Fox’s Fantastic Four film by blasting it on Twitter just as the movie opened, but even absent his social media “diss,” this FF reboot appears to have had very little hope. After its disastrous $26.2 million opening, the new FF film fell 68.9% in its second weekend as it earned an estimated $8 million to bring its domestic total to $41 million.
Those of you who are interested in box office records might want to check the final box office numbers, which will be released tomorrow, since that $8 million figure looks suspiciously like it may have been “rounded up,” and this FF reboot is close to beating the 2002 Ang Lee Hulk movie’s 69.7% second week drop, which is tops among all Marvel Comics-based films (though it must be pointed out the 2002 Hulk opened with $62. 1 million and its second week total of $18.8 million is still bigger than Trank’s FF film’s $26.2 million debut when adjusted for inflation, which means more tickets were sold for second weekend shows of the 2002 Hulk than for the premiere weekend of the new FF).
The fifth spot went to the micro-budgeted thriller The Gift, which has now earned $23.6 million versus a cost of just $5 million. Marvel Studios’ Ant-Man slipped to number six in its fifth weekend of release as it added $5.5 million to bring its domestic total to $157.6 million, which currently represents 46.8% of the movie’s $336.5 million global total.
It now appears unlikely that Universal’s Minions ($313 million) will best Pixar’s Inside Out ($339.4 million) as the top animated film of the summer of 2015 in the domestic market. At the other end of the animated movie success spectrum, Aardman Animation’s delightful stop-motion animated Shaun the Sheep movie tumbled out of the top ten in just its second weekend, and will definitely have to make its mark on disc (and download).
The summer movie season is definitely winding down now, but be sure to check back here next week to see what happens when the R-rated stoner action comedy American Ultra starring Jesse Eisenberg (Lex Luthor), and the videogame-based Hitman: Agent 47 both open nationwide.
