CNN host Carol Costello reported, “Some movie theaters were anxious about violence when Straight Outta Compton hit the screen”.
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It became the biggest August opening ever for an R-rated film, and the No. 1 musical biopic.
While the studio predicted a weekend box office of .1 million on Sunday morning, on Monday it revised that number to a whopping $60.2 million. Dre, Eazy-E, Ice Cube, MC Ren and DJ Yella during their rise to stardom in the late 1980s and early 1990s, also centers on themes of racial tension, poverty and police brutality.
A lot of so-called experts initially didn’t expect “Compton” to open strong as it did says Nicholas Carpou, Universal Pictures’ head of domestic distribution. American Pie 2 previously held the record in 2001 with a $45.1 million opening, according to Variety.
Trailing in eighth was animated comedy Minions, featuring the notorious yellow mischief-making creatures, with $5.2 million. Ricki and the Flash, $4.6 million; 10.
Universal has done very well so far this year, with its movies taken together breaking all previous records, grossing $5.5 billion already, globally.
“Straight Outta Compton” played 52 percent female, 46 percent African American, and 51 percent under age 30, numbers that any studio would love. Confirmed box-office bust Fantastic Four etched out another $8 million for a two week total of $41 million, well below Compton’s opening draw.
Meanwhile, Warner Bros. PG-13-rated adaptation of the 1960s television series The Man From U.N.C.L.E. debuted in third place, behind Mission: Impossible Rogue Nation, with a sluggish $13.5 million.
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“Moviegoers don’t really want to see the entire movie in trailers or marketing and I don’t think Universal has been guilty of that at all this year”, said Phil Contrino, chief box office analyst at BoxOffice.com. Crawling to the fifth spot was Joel Edgerton’s The Gift.
