Every time a movie about and for audiences who aren’t white and male does well, everyone acts like it’s a big surprise. “Black people and women like movies? Who’da thunk it?” It’s actually not surprising at all that Straight Outta Compton had a massive opening, handily defeating its more standard competition. Because all kinds of people like movies and when you make movies for all kinds of people, you end up with huge weekends at the box office.
| Film | Weekend | Per Screen | ||
| 1 | Straight Outta Compton | $56,091,000 | $20,345 | $56,091,000 |
| 2 | Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation | $17,000,000 (-40%) | $4,595 | $138,136,000 |
| 3 | The Man From U.N.C.L.E. | $13,535,000 | $3,720 | $13,535,000 |
| 4 | Fantastic Four | $8,000,000 (-69%) | $1,998 | $41,961,000 |
| 5 | The Gift | $6,500,000 (-45%) | $2,597 | $23,577,000 |
| 6 | Ant-Man | $5,517,000 (-30%) | $2,392 | $157,567,000 |
| 7 | Vacation | $5,330,000 (-40%) | $1,726 | $46,852,000 |
| 8 | Minions | $5,161,000 (-31%) | $1,955 | $312,929,000 |
| 9 | Ricki and the Flash | $4,570,000 (-31%) | $2,214 | $14,655,000 |
| 10 | Trainwreck | $3,836,000 (-38%) | $1,920 | $97,955,000 |
Straight Outta Compton opened to $56 million, which is a huge opening for most movies. So it’s an exceptional opening for a biopic about the late ’80s and early ’90s rap group N.W.A. If you want to compare it to similar fare, the Johnny Cash biopic Walk the Line opened to $22 million back in 2005 before making nearly $120 million in the United States alone. If this movie has similar legs, it’s looking at $150 million, minimum. We’ll have a better idea of where this thing can go after next weekend. If audiences stick around, this could continue to be huge.
The success of Straight Outta Compton makes The Man From U.N.C.L.E. a footnote. Its $13 million opening is bad news for a movie that presumably cost a lot more than the hip-hop biopic at the top of the chart. Not even a strong second weekend can boost this one. It’ll be lucky to hit $50 million and it’ll need a few miracles to get that far. Blame a marketing campaign that allowed the movie to get lost in the shuffle. Blame the people who had no idea that The Man From U.N.C.L.E. used to be a popular TV series back in the day. In either case, this one is dead on arrival.
Speaking of movies based on popular TV shows from a few decades ago, Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation continued to cruise (ha) along, grossing $17 million in its third weekend for a current total of $138 million. It should outgross Mission: Impossible III soon enough, but it’s going to need some legs if it wants to catch Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol. $200 million is where this movie wants to be at the end of its run and it certainly looks like it’s going to get there.
In fourth place, Fantastic Four fell a devastating 69 percent, making only $8 million for a $41 million total. It should manage to crack $50 million, but this superhero reboot may very well unseat Jupiter Ascending as the most noteworthy bomb of 2015. This is a year where an Ant-Man movie is about to break $160 million and one of the world’s most famous superhero teams flops. This is a weird year.
The rest of the top 10 fell into expected positions. The Gift continued to do decent business for a low-budget, low-key movie. Vacation and Ricki and the Flash continued to underperform, but not disastrously so. Minions is still a huge hit, but it’s also $100 million shy of where everyone thought it was going to end up. And finally, Trainwreck is on the cusp of $100 million and should get there next week.
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