Friday Estimates: War Room Escapes Dog Days of Summer

August 29, 2015

No Escape

Only one of the three new releases did well on Friday, and it was a film that many analysts thought would bomb. Despite earning the worst reviews and having the smallest theater count of the three new releases, War Room earned first place on Friday with $3.875 million. Faith-based films tend to have a higher internal multiplier than most films, because their target audience tends to show up at theaters on Sunday after church. Because of this, the film might open with a theater average above $10,000, which would give it an opening weekend of over $11 million. That’s probably a little too optimistic, but second place with $10 million is within reach.

No Escape debuted on Wednesday in second place with just $1.18 million. It fell to third place on Thursday with $882,000. Fortunately, it remained in third place on Friday will $2.44 million, which was nearly triple its Thursday haul. Perhaps not enough people knew it opened on Wednesday. Unfortunately, a Friday haul of $2.44 million still isn’t great and there’s a chance it will earn just $6 million over the weekend, which would put it below the Mendoza Line. Even on the high end, it will earn just $8 million over the weekend for a total of $10 million after five days. Some thought it would make $10 million over three days, so this is a disappointing start.

Speaking of disappointing, We Are Your Friends opened outside of the top five on Friday with a mere $725,000. Unless something amazing happens on Saturday and Sunday, the film is going to miss $2 million for the weekend.

As expected, Straight Outta Compton will will win the weekend, again, but it will finish on the low end of expectations with $13 million. It is still on pace to hit $150 million, but it will take an extra few days to get there.

- Friday Estimates

Filed under: Friday Estimates, No Escape, Straight Outta Compton, We Are Your Friends, War Room