Weekend Estimates: Compton Tops War Room for Third Win
August 30, 2015
Straight Outta Compton will win a third weekend at the box office, according to studio estimates released on Sunday, but it won’t be without a struggle. The biopic lost on Friday to War Room, a faith-based film that opened in just 1,135 theaters, and the weekend race will finish with just a couple of million dollars between the two films, with Compton’s $13.2 million edging out War Room’s $11 million. Compton now has $134 million in the bank, making it the fifth-highest-grossing biographical film after American Sniper ($350 million), Lincoln ($182 million), A Beautiful Mind ($170 million), and Catch Me if You Can ($165 million). If you’re playing the Oscars game at home already, it’s worth noting that three of the four films above it received Best Picture nominations (Catch Me if You Can being the odd-one-out).
For War Room, $11 million marks another triumph for Alex and Stephen Kendrick, following in the footsteps of Courageous, Facing the Giants, and Fireproof. Again, they have made a film that gets poor scores from critics, but receives high marks from their audience. It looks as though they have another $30 million hit on their hands, at a time when there isn’t much competition at the multiplex.
The weekend’s other openers are fairing much more poorly. No Escape will pick up $8.3 million this weekend, for a $10.4 million 5-day debut, including Wednesday and Thursday. Although Owen Wilson isn’t entirely mis-cast in an action thriller, he clearly isn’t much of a draw in the role. Again, audiences are liking the film more than critics, but this is a genre where good reviews would have helped.
The weekend’s real disaster at the box office is We Are Your Friends, which will limped to a $1.8 million opening, and 13th place on the chart. There’s really nothing positive one can say about a film that averages $772 per theater on opening weekend.
Speaking of theater averages, Grandma continues to tear up the charts with a second-weekend average projected at $16,243 from 19 venues. It will earn a total of around $310,000, and clearly has room to grow. Also looking good in its second weekend is Learning to Drive, with an average of $8,108 in 15 theaters. The Second Mother is the best-performing new limited release to report so far, with a projected $27,750 debut from three theaters for Oscilloscope.
Bruce Nash, bruce.nash@the-numbers.com
Filed under: Weekend Estimates, No Escape, Straight Outta Compton, Learning to Drive, We Are Your Friends, Grandma, War Room, Que Horas Ela Volta?, Alex Kendrick, Owen Wilson, Stephen Kendrick