‘War Room’ Finds More Followers On Sunday, But ‘Compton’ Is Still King – Monday Box Office Final
6TH UPDATE, Monday 2:05PM with final B.O. chart: Following 8:35AM post. Sony/AFFIRM’s Kendrick Brothers’ War Room came in higher at $11.4M, thanks to a better-than-anticipated hold on Sunday of $3.4M which reps a -12% dip from Saturday’s $3.87M. As is standard with faith-based titles, its target audience heads to matinees after Sunday church services. This morning estimates bests Sony’s original $11M projection as well as the industry’s at $10.7M.
Universal/Legendary’s Straight Outta Compton still has No. 1 with $13.1M and a running cume in its third frame of $134.1M. Paramount’s Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation owns third with an estimated $8.2M and $170.2M five weekend cume. In fourth is Weinstein Co.’s Owen Wilson-Pierce Brosnan action thriller No Escape with $8.1M and a five-day domestic take of $10.2M. The weekend’s third wide entry, Zac Efron’s R-rated drama We Are Your Friends from Warner Bros. didn’t make any more friends on Sunday with $430K at 2,333, down 30% from Saturday for an estimated weekend of $1.77M, still outside the top 10 in spot #14.
Summer’s final frame, the ever so sluggish 4-day Labor Day weekend, brings two new films: EuropaCorp’s The Transporter Refueled which looks to make an estimated $10M-$13M over four days. The big play for this film, like Hitman, is the overseas market more than domestic. However, this title doesn’t star the franchise’s face, Jason Statham, rather burgeoning British actor Ed Skrein whose next big role is Ajax in Fox’s Deadpool. Transporter 3 raked in $77.3M overseas to $31.7M domestic.
Broad Green’s R-rated thespian dramedy A Walk in the Woods with Robert Redford and Nick Nolte kicks off Wednesday. Industry projections put the Ken Kwapis movie at $5M over FSS and $8M-$9M over the six-day holiday.
The final actual box office figures for the weekend of Aug. 28-30 per Rentrak Theatrical:
1). Straight Outta Compton (UNI), 3,142 theaters (+117) /3-day cume: $13.1M (-50%)/ Per screen average: $4,180 /Total cume: $134M/ Wk 3
2). War Room (SONY), 1,135 theaters / 3-day cume: $11.4M / Per screen: $10,001 / Wk 1
3). Mission: Impossible-Rogue Nation (PAR), 3,095 theaters (-347) / 3-day cume: $8.2M (-29%)/ Per screen: $2,635 / Total Cume: $170.2M/ Wk 4
4). No Escape (TWC), 3,355 theaters /3-day cume: $8.1M / Per screen: $2,418 / Total cume: 10.2M /Wk 1
5). Sinister 2 (Gramercy/Focus), 2,799 theaters (+33) /3-day cume: $4.7M (-56%)/ Per screen: $1,667 / Total cume: $18.5M /Wk 2
6). Man From U.N.C.L.E (WB), 2,706 theaters (-967) /3-day cume: $4.4M (-39%)/ Per screen: $1,638 / Total cume: $34.1M/ Wk 3
7). Hitman: Agent 47 (Fox), 3,273 theaters (+12)// 3-day cume: $4.2M (-49%) / Per screen: $1,291 / Total cume: $15.6M /Wk 2
8). Ant-Man (DIS), 1,690 theaters (-326) / 3-day cume: $3.1M(-24%)/ Per screen: $1,818 / Total cume: $169.2M / Wk 7
9). Jurassic World (UNI), 1,239 theaters (+665%) / 3-day cume: $3.01M (+218%) / Per screen: $2,430 / Total cume: $643M /Wk 12
10). The Gift (STX), 1,934 theaters (-369) / 3-day cume: $3M(-30%)/ Per screen: $1,553 / Total Cume: $35.8M /Wk 4
11). Minions (UNI), 1,976 theaters (-250)/3-day cume: $2.88M (-25%)/ Per screen: $1,455 / Total Cume: $324.8M / Wk 8
12). American Ultra (LG), 2,778 theaters (0)/ 3-day cume: $2.85M (-48%) / Per screen: $ / Total cume: 10.5M/ Wk 2
13). Fantastic Four (Fox), 1,675 theaters (-906)/ 3-day cume: $1.78M (-52%) / Per screen: $1,064 / Total cume: $52.7M /Wk 4
14). We Are Your Friends (WB), 2,333 theaters / 3-day cume: $1.77M / Per screen: $758 / Wk 1
15). Ricki And The Flash (Sony), 1,716 theaters (-297)/ 3-day cume: $1.7M (-43%) / Per screen: $992 / Total cume: $23.5M /Wk 4
16). Trainwreck (UNI), 957 theaters (-376)/ 3-day cume: $1.67M (-32%) / Per screen: $1,745 / Total cume: $105.1M /Wk 4
17). Vacation (WB), 1,555 theaters (-747)/ 3-day cume: $1.6M (-46%)/ Per screen: $1,047 /Total cume: $54.9M/ Wk 5
18). Pixels (Sony), 1,005 theaters (-344)/ 3-day cume: $1.5M (-28%) / Per screen: $1,529 / Total cume: $71M /Wk 6
19). Inside Out (DIS), 763 theaters (-58) / 3-day cume: $31.3M(-15%)/ Per screen: $1,769 / Total cume: $344.5M / Wk 11
20). Shaun The Sheep Movie (LG), 1,358 theaters (-320)/ 3-day cume: $1.1M (-28%) / Per screen: $805 / Total cume: 16.3M/ Wk 4
Notables:
Phantom (UTV), 93 theaters / 3-day cume: $267K / Per screen: $2,868 / Wk 1
Z For Zachariah (RSA), 29 theaters /3-day cume: $57K / Per Screen: $1,962 /Wk 1
Memories Of The Sword (WGU), 22 theaters /3-day cume: $50K / Per Screen: $2,284 /Wk 1
Army Of Shadows (RIA), 1 theaters /3-day cume: $8,112 /Wk 1
Drown (SR), 1 theaters /3-day cume: $860 /Wk 1
5TH UPDATE, Sunday 10AM after 7:48 AM post: Despite the holy B.O. threat of Sony/Affirm’s faith-based title War Room this weekend, Universal/Legendary’s hip hop biopic Straight Outta Compton continued to spin records at No. 1 with a studio reported figure of $13.2M, making it the third Uni film this year after Furious 7 and Jurassic World to hold the top B.O. spot for three weekends in a row. Overall, it’s the fourth film this year to complete that feat after Warner Bros’ American Sniper dominated January. By the end of Labor Day weekend, if Compton holds for four frames, it will match F7‘s lengthy run at No. 1. Total domestic B.O. for Compton is at $134.1M.
Those in the faith-based community aren’t surprised in the least that War Room, which counts an estimated $10.7M in second at 1,135, steamrolled over new titles by Zac Efron and Owen Wilson-Pierce Brosnan. Sony is reporting $11M for FSS for this pic which cost an estimated $3.5M to make.
Despite War Room‘s rally, the question asked is why release a film during this lackluster period in August? It was the lowest-grossing weekend of the year to date with an estimated $86M in total ticket sales, down 21% from a year ago and 19% from last weekend!
Says Weinstein Co. distribution chief Erik Lomis, who came out all right with No Escape with $8.29M over FSS and $10.3M, “You look at the competitive advantage” as to why distribs open films in this frame. “Any edge (in a weekend) that you can get, where there are films not in your demo wheelhouse, that is prime,” said Lomis.
Warner Bros. tried to cater to the college crowd with the Zac Efron drama We Are Your Friends. But that group was too busy getting oriented on campus as close to 70% of all colleges were back in session per Rentrak. Hence, We Are Your Friends was abandoned at the box office with an awful $1.8M at 2,333. This is the lowest opening for a Warner Bros. release at 2,000+ engagements. The previous low-balls were 1998’s Major League: Back to the Minors ($2.09M opening at 2,322 theaters) and 2002’s Adventures of Pluto ($2.18M at 2,320). In fairness to Warner Bros., the studio had little skin in the Efron project as it was a $2M pickup.
The Kendrick brothers are a brand name for Christian audiences, who know their movies are always a cut above any other indie faith-based fare. Alex Kendrick directs while his brother Stephen produces and co-writes. War Room is easily their highest opening of all time, beating the $9.1M made by their last title, Tri-Star/AFFIRM’s Courageous. In addition to the film receiving an A+ CinemaScore, War Room earned a 4.5 out of 5 stars from Faith Based Consumer, which is akin to getting the Good Housekeeping seal. The film was largely driven by African American audiences who repped 44% of the crowd per Rentrak’s PostTrak. In CinemaScore polls, 42% of the audience was Caucasian for War Room while 36% were African American. 60% attending War Room were male.
It’s do-able for War Room to get to $11M as church-goers flock to the movies after Sunday services. Fandango reports that there were a higher number of tickets sold per transaction for War Room heading into the weekend, which indicates that moviegoers bought tickets in groups. Quite often parishes will make a field trip out of going to the movies. To the right is an email ad for Church groups encouraging them to buy tickets for War Room. War Room is another feather in AFFIRM’s cap in the wake of Soul Surfer ($43.9M) and Courageous ($34.5M). Sony reports that ticket sales were high for War Room throughout the Southeast and Midwest. The grassroots efforts toward pastors and parishes began a year ago.
Rich Peluso, SVP of Sony Pictures’ AFFIRM Films, expounded on War Room‘s marketing in a statement, and praised its partnership with the Kendricks and Provident Films: “Sony Pictures’ AFFIRM Films, along with our partner Provident Films, worked to bring the movie and its message and themes to pastors, ministry and other faith community leaders far ahead of the release to help spread the word, starting even before production begins. By opening up the story and characters to these leaders, we give them a sense of ownership that energizes them and help them plan out how they can use our movies as tools inside their own tool boxes.”
Weinstein Co.’s political action film No Escape and Paramount’s Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation are in a tug-of-war for third place. Par’s reported figures show M:I5 above No Escape. With $170.4M, the Tom Cruise spy film became the studio’s highest grossing film of the year stateside, beating The SpongeBob Movie ($163M). The five-day cume for No Escape came in higher than Brosnan’s The November Man a year ago which made $7.9M over 3-days and $9.6M over 5-days. November Man ended its run at $25M. TWC picked up No Escape for $5M at Cannes last year. In exit polls, No Escape earned 86% from its exit polls with a 69% definite recommend.
Given Efron’s relationship with Warner Bros. — his run with them includes a slew of New Line titles such as Hair Spray, 17 Again, The Lucky Man and New Year’s Eve — I’m told he approached them with We Are Your Friends which was an indie passion project for the actor. The studio snapped it up for $2M, thus limiting their exposure, and the plan was to always take it wide. Hindsight being 20/20, a platform would have served the title better than its 2,333 theater bookings. Critics gave it a 43% Rotten score to No Escape‘s 41%; the highest grade out of this weekend’s crop. Los Angeles was the highest-performing market. The film earned an overall C+ CinemaScore and a B- from Efron’s young female fans under 25. However, the poll sampling was low. Warner Bros. thought they had an opportunity to get young females here, and that just wasn’t the case at this point in the summer. For all the dinging that has gone on with Warner Bros. this summer, particularly over Mad Max: Fury Road ($374M global B.O.) and its $200M spend in production, distribution and marketing costs; the studio is actually up at the summer domestic B.O. by at least 6% with close to $606M through this weekend. Mad Max aside, Warner Bros. has accomplished this largely on a diet of low budget movies, i.e. Vacation and Magic Mike XXL, which they’ve counter-programmed against the tentpole whales on the calendar.
We Are Your Friends
wasn’t the only one losing support among young moviegoers. Lionsgate’s American Ultra fell outside the top 10 with an estimated $2.8M and a 10-day cume of $10.4M. However, Gramercy/Focus/Blumhouse’s Sinister 2, which grabbed that demo last weekend, only feel 56% with $4.65M. Hitman: Agent 47 from 20th Century Fox fell 54% with $3.85M. Uni’s Jurassic World Imax rerelease raised its domestic cume to over $643M through 12 weekends.
The studio-reported estimates for the weekend of Aug. 28-30 as of Sunday AM, compiled by Deadline’s Amanda N’Duka:
1). Straight Outta Compton (UNI), 3,142 theaters (+117) / $3.8M Fri. / $5.5M Sat. (+44%) / $3.9M Sun. (-30%) /3-day cume: $13.2M (-50%)/Total cume: $134.1M/ Wk 3
2). War Room (SONY), 1,135 theaters / $4M Fri. */$3.9M Sat. (-4%) / $3.1M Sun. (-21%) / 3-day cume: $11M / Wk 1
Industry weekend: $10.7M
*includes $600K of previews
3). Mission: Impossible-Rogue Nation (PAR), 3,095 theaters (-347) / $2.2M Fri. /$3.7M Sat. (+72%) / $2.4M Sun. (-36%) / 3-day cume: $8.3M (-28%)/ Total Cume: $170.4/ Wk 4
Industry weekend: $8.26M
4). No Escape (TWC), 3,355 theaters / $2.4M Fri. / $3.4M Sat. (+41%) / $2.4M Sun. (-30%) /3-day cume: $8.29M / Total cume: 10.3M /Wk 1 (Wednesday bow)
Industry weekend: $8.175M
5). Sinister 2 (Gramercy/Focus), 2,799 theaters (+33) / $1.4M Fri. / $2M Sat. (+44%) / $1.2M Sun. (-39%) /3-day cume: $4.65M (-56%)/ Total cume: $18.5M /Wk 2
6). Man From U.N.C.L.E (WB), 2,706 theaters (-967) / $1.2M Fri. / $2M Sat. (+60%) / $1.2M Sun. (-40%) /3-day cume: $4.4M (-43%)/Total cume: $34.1M/ Wk 3
7). Hitman: Agent 47 (Fox), 3,273 theaters (+12)/ $1.1M Fri. /$1.7M Sat. (+53%) / $980K Sun. (-44%) / 3-day cume: $3.85M (-54%) / Total cume: $15.3M /Wk 2
Industry weekend: $4M
8). The Gift (STX), 1,934 theaters (-369) / $846K Fri. /$1.37M Sat. (+62%) / $918K Sun. (-33%) / 3-day cume: $3.13M(-27%)/ Total Cume: $35.96M /Wk 4
9). Jurassic World (UNI), 1,239 theaters (+665) / $793K Fri. /$1.4M Sat. (+73%) / $960K Sun. (-30%) / 3-day cume: $3.12M (+230%) / Total cume: $643.1M /Wk 12
10). Ant-Man (DIS), 2,016 theaters (-290) / $777K Fri. /$1.4M Sat. (+83%) / $855K Sun. (-40%) / 3-day cume: $3.05M(-25%)/Total cume: $169.2M / Wk 6
11). Minions (UNI), 1,976 theaters (-250)/ $672K Fri. /$1.3K Sat. (+94%) / $948K Sun. (-27%) /3-day cume: $2.9M (-24%)/Total Cume: $324.8M / Wk 8
12). American Ultra (LG), 2,778 theaters (0)/ $812K Fri. /$1.2M Sat. (+45%) / $814K Sun. (-31%) / 3-day cume: $2.8M (-49%) /Total cume: 10.4M/ Wk 2
13). We Are Your Friends (WB), 2,333 theaters / $725K Fri.** /$615K Sat. (-15%) / $460K Sun. (-25%) / 3-day cume: $1.8M / Wk 1
Industry weekend: $1.74M
**made $175K in Thursday previews
14). Fantastic Four (Fox), 1,675 theaters (-906)/ $435K Fri. /$835K Sat. (+92%) / $430K Sun. (-49%) / 3-day cume: $1.7M (-53%) / Total cume: $52.7M /Wk 4
Industry weekend: $1.77M
Notables:
Z For Zachariah (RSA), 29 theaters / $18K Fri. / $23K Sat. (+28%) / $15K Sun. (-35%) /3-day cume: $56K / Wk 1
Queen Of Earth (IFC), 2 theaters / $4K Fri. / $4K Sat. (+2%) / $3K Sun. (-30%) /3-day cume: $11K / Wk 1
Zipper (ALCH), 17 theaters / $2.5K Fri. / $3K Sat. (+31%) / $2K Sun. (-40%) /3-day cume: $8K / Wk 1
4TH & 3RD UPDATE, Saturday 7:56AM after 12:14AM: In a weak penultimate Friday to the summer box office, moviegoers gave it up to God today instead of the church of N.W.A.
Affirm/Sony’s faith-based title War Room looks to have inched out Universal/Legendary’s Straight Outta Compton, $3.87M to $3.85M at Friday’s B.O. Last night, War Room looked like it had some distance from Compton, but morning figures show the F. Gary Gray film with more dough. War Room is the fifth film by director Alex Kendrick, and it’s the second consecutive film of his to earn A+ CinemaScores after his 2011 Courageous, a feat no other director has pulled off. The film about a strained family that finds redemption through an elderly lady’s prayer war room is on track to make an estimated $10.2M this weekend, putting it second behind Compton (the projection is that the Uni/Legendary film will go up today by 35% from yesterday while War Room will dip 10%) That FSS is 100% more than the industry was projecting it to be at 1,135 theaters and if the estimates hold, War Room will easily become Kendrick’s highest opener ever after Courageous ($9.1M), also from TriStar. Many in town didn’t see War Room coming, except for Fandango which noticed that advance ticket sales for the Kendrick movie were second to Compton‘s.
If Compton holds No. 1 with $12.6M at 3,142 playdates, then it will be the third Uni title to hold No. 1 for three weekends in a row after Furious 7 and Jurassic World. By Sunday, Compton looks to stand stateside at $133.48M. With little huzzah out there in theaters right now, Uni took the opportunity to re-release the dinos in Imax this weekend, which is on course to make another $2.79M at 1,239 runs, taking the third-highest grossing title of all-time to $642.8M, just $16M less than Titanic’s lifetime cume, which includes a 3D reissue, of $658.67M.
With close to 70% of schools and colleges back in session according to Rentrak, exit polls for the new films clearly indicated that if anyone was going to the movies, it was adults more than teens and twentysomethings. With the late holiday, summer is a weekend longer this year than 2014; a year ago it was Labor Day weekend, which only puts more pain on this frame overall.
Though Kendrick’s fare typically opens in late September, Affirm dropped War Room when all the beastly summer tentpoles had already done their thrashing. While there’s been an abundance of faith-based films recently, when they click with the flock, they definitely work. Kendrick is already a brand in that arena with Fireproof and Courageous each climbing to nearly $35M domestic cumes from shoestring budgets. War Room was made for an estimated $3.5M, more than Courageous’ $2M production cost and Fireproof‘s $500K. War Room‘s anticipated weekend will beat the $9.2M for God’s Not Dead. The last high for a faith-based title was April 2014’s Heaven Is for Real ($22.5M).
I’m told the usual recipe of Christian grassroots marketing toward pastors and churches was key in creating momentum for War Room; the initiative began a year before release. Relish Mix spotted 40 War Room videos being flooded on Facebook, however, the page only added 4K fans a day for a current total of 540K. Twitter followers are lighter near 2,500. Females over 25 are giving War Room a huge 76% definite recommend according to Rentrak’s PostTrak, which makes sense since a majority of them showed up with 84% over 25 and 66% female. African Americans turned out in great numbers at 44%. General audiences at 68% gave War Room a thumbs up. 38% of those buying tickets came out for the subject matter. Overall CinemaScore is an astounding A+. The last film to nab that grade this year was American Sniper.
Pierce Brosnan and Owen Wilson have tag-teamed to wrestle Tom Cruise’s fifthquel Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation away from third with No Escape. The political action film which Weinstein Co. acquired for $5M at the Cannes Film Festival last year, is looking at $7.6M for FSS and $9.68M for five days. CinemaScore audiences gave the film a B+; the same grade they gave Brosnan’s The November Man last August at this time. The 5-day take for No Escape is a near match to what November Man pulled in: $9.6M. Older guys headed out to this with 56% male and 79% over 25 per PostTrak. Females over 25 screamed ‘Go see it’ at 52%. Moviegoers told PostTrak that they took in No Escape because they were intrigued by the subject matter and the genre. It was revealed on the Today Show this week that when Wilson was approached by the No Escape filmmakers, he was instructed to bring the dad from Marley & Me, while they brought the southeast Asian turmoil.
With the young hunks out on the high school football field, some young females would rather watch them do squats than Zac Efron’s latest Hollywood drama We Are Your Friends. As Anita Busch pointed out yesterday during the afternoon matinees, the film couldn’t scratch $1M Friday, rather an estimated $722K at 2,333. The studio shelled out $2M for the film, but it’s going to make less than that this weekend at $1.9M.
Similar to American Ultra last weekend, the unfortunate irony with WAYF is that there was a disconnect between its busy social media buzz and those who ultimately decided to buy tickets. Relish Mix reports a strong social media universe of 75.3M for the Joseph Max-directed film with videos being shared at an average of 10 to 1. Efron did his part on social, reaching out to his 11M Twitter followers, 16.3M Facebook fans and 6.4M Instagrammers with social stills and videos. Of late, hashtags for the film were at 5K, behind Compton’s 7K. Co-star Emily Ratajkowski boasts 3M likes on FB. At least Efron’s grandma and grandpa showed up:
Shout out to Grandma and grandpa. First ones in line, opening night. Love you pic.twitter.com/WUagzvtyA3
— Zac Efron (@ZacEfron) August 29, 2015
This is the lowest opening for an Efron wide release ever, however, peg it to an offbeat indie choice on his part. This is his first film after the uber $268M global success of Neighbors in which he was co-billed with Seth Rogen. Efron can hope for better days ahead having booked the comedies Dirty Grandpa with Robert De Niro and Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising. Those few girls who actually braved watching WAYF hated it with a C+ CinemaScore. PostTrak actually spotted a few at the multiplex with 60% females and 56% under 25.
Further evidence that the young set wanted little to do with movies this weekend: American Ultra is likely to free fall out of the top 10 with a -53% weekend or $2.5M, putting its 10-day cume at $10.2M. The Kristen Stewart-Jesse Eisenberg film actually beat Efron’s R-rated offering Friday with $808K.
The second weekends of Gramercy/Focus/Blumhouse’s Sinister 2 and Fox’s Hitman: Agent 47 look to remain in the top 10 with respective weekends of $4.2M and $3.9M. By the end of the weekend, Agent 47’s total cume of $15.4M will be dogging its first 2007 title by close to 50%. Sinister 2’s running cume by Sunday of $18M will be slacking behind Sinister by -43%.
The top 13 films per industry estimates for the weekend of Aug. 28-30 as compiled by Deadline’s Amanda N’Duka, updated as of 8AM today:
1). Straight Outta Compton (UNI), 3,142 theaters (+117) / $3.85M Fri. (-53%) / 3-day cume: $12.59M (-52%)/Total cume: $133.48M/ Wk 3
2). War Room (Affirm/Sony), 1,135 theaters / $3.87M Fri.*/ 3-day cume: $10.2M / Wk 1
*includes $600K of Thursday previews
3). No Escape (TWC), 3,355 theaters / $2.41M Fri. / 3-day cume: $7.61M / Total cume: $9.68M /Wk 1
4). Mission: Impossible-Rogue Nation (PAR), 3,095 theaters (-347) / $2.18M Fri. (-35%) / 3-day cume: $7.58M(-34%)/ Total Cume: $169.7/ Wk 5
5). Man From U.N.C.L.E (WB), 2,706 theaters (-967) / $1.24M Fri. (-44%)/ 3-day cume: $4.2M (-42%)/Total cume: $33.9M/ Wk 3
6). Sinister 2 (Gramercy/Focus), 2,799 theaters (+33) / $1.38M Fri. (-70%)/ 3-day cume: $4.16M (-60%)/ Total cume: $18M /Wk 2
7). Hitman: Agent 47 (Fox), 3,273 theaters (+12)/ $1.14M Fri. (-64%)/ 3-day cume: $3.87M (-53%) / Total cume: $15.4M /Wk 2
8). The Gift (STX), 1,934 theaters (-369) / $830K Fri. (-34%) / 3-day cume: $2.85M(-33%)/ Total Cume: $35.65M /Wk 4
9). Jurassic World (UNI), 1,239 theaters (+665) / $786K Fri. (+194%) / 3-day cume: $2.79M (+195%) / Total cume: $642.8M /Wk 12
10). Ant-Man (DIS), 2,016 theaters (-290) / $777K Fri. (-33%) / 3-day cume: $2.73M(-33%)/Total cume: $168.8M / Wk 7
11). American Ultra (LG), 2,778 theaters (0)/ $808K Fri. (-62%)/ 3-day cume: $2.537M (-53%) /Total cume: $10.23M/ Wk 2
12). Minions (UNI), 1,976 theaters (-250)/ $660K Fri. (-39%)/ 3-day cume: $2.33M (-39%)/Total Cume: $324.1M / Wk 8
13). We Are Your Friends (WB), 2,333 theaters / $722K Fri. / 3-day cume: $1.9M / Wk 1
Notables:
Z For Zachariah (RSA), 29 theaters / $18K Fri. / 3-day cume: $57K / Wk 1
2nd UPDATE: Friday, 1:27PM: ‘Compton’ Threepeat, ‘War Room’ Leads Newcomers
1ST UPDATE, Friday 8:13AM: The faith-based film War Room, from Fireproof director Alex Kendrick, started its weekend early last night with a $600,000 take from 1,017 theaters. The film, which is being handled by Affirm/TriStar, will expand to 1,135 locations today and is on track for a $4M-$5M opening. Warner Bros.’ Zac Efron drama We Are Your Friends came in much lower with $175K. Industry projections put that film at $10M-$12M FSS. Set against the go-go of Hollywood nightlife, We Are Your Friends follows an up-and-coming DJ who falls for his older mentor’s much younger girlfriend. Critics are mostly sticking their noses up at the film with a 39% Rotten score.
War Room
‘s weekend projection files just under Kendrick’s previous cash cow, Fireproof, which bowed to $6.8M at 839 playdates. The film finaled at $33.5M stateside off an estimated $500K production cost. Fandango this week reported that War Room was the No. 2 advance ticket seller behind Universal/Legendary’s Straight Outta Compton. Critics aren’t wild about War Room with a 29% Rotten score. The pic was made for an estimated $3.5M.
Compton continued to remain king among all titles yesterday with $1.96M. The story about N.W.A currently stands at $120.9M at the domestic box office.
Newcomer No Escape from Weinstein Co. took third with $870K in its second day, raising its cume to $2.05M behind Paramount’s Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation, which made an estimated $1.02M in second. The Tom Cruise fifthquel has logged $162.1M through four weeks. No Escape earned a B+ CinemaScore, the same mark that moviegoers graded Brosnan’s The November Man which played during the same frame last August. That film drew a 55% male audience that was 83% over the age of 25. No Escape has the best Rotten score of the three new wide titles at 41%.
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