‘Straight Outta Compton’ Threepeat; Faith-Based ‘War Room’ Leading Newcomers So Far — Friday Matinees
Newcomers this weekend are performing as expected in what is anticipated to be a weak, end-of-summer three-day. Three new films are competing for moviegoers in the final weekend before Labor Day, and the faith-based War Room from Fireproof director Alex Kendrick is leading the new entries so far to pull in (as it looks now) around $3.6M or so today after grabbing $600K from over 1,000 theaters last night. Not surprising as it is a PG player, but the R-rated audience for the Zac Efron drama We Are Your Friends from Warner Bros. and the actioner No Escape from TWC doesn’t arrive until later tonight. So these are only early, early matinee numbers.
Interestingly, NRG thought War Room would only pull in $3M total, according to its tracking service. The faith-based films, however, always seem to surprise and this one just might as it plays throughout the weekend. Look for maybe an $8.5M to $10M run. War Room is leading in ticket sales going into the weekend.
We Are Your Friends is getting the benefit of Efron’s 16.3M Facebook fans, but the picture is not setting the world on fire in its 2,333 theaters, having been bested last night by War Room which is debuting in only 1,135 locales. Warner Bros. has about $2M invested in the negative of Friends along with a moderate investment in distribution and marketing. Right now it may take in around $1M today (after a slow $175K start in late nights), to end the weekend probably not even in the Top Ten chart. Ugh. No Escape which is anticipated to end the weekend with around $7M to $8M range, was released earlier in the week, may earn a five-day total of around $9M to $10M for its stars Owen Wilson and Pierce Brosnan.
Still, Universal Pictures’ Straight Outta Compton will likely grab well over $130M and is on track right now to take the No. 1 spot for the three-day with around $14M maybe. If they do it, that would be three times in a row for the critically acclaimed film that chronicles the rise of N.W.A. It added over 100 new runs this weekend. Compton is the fourth film this year to hold three weekends at No. 1 in a row after American Sniper, Furious 7 (which actually held four weekends throughout the entire month of April) and Jurassic World.
Related stories
'War Room' Finds More Followers On Sunday, But 'Compton' Is Still King - Monday Box Office Update
'No Escape' Flees With $1.2M In Anemic Marketplace - Box Office
Get more from Deadline.com: Follow us on Twitter, Facebook, Newsletter
