For what it’s worth, a biopic of Straight Outta Compton’s caliber on the life of Snoop Dogg and Co. could prove to be pretty profitable, as the film is slated to cross the 0M mark at the box office this weekend. Newcomers “Sinister 2”, “American Ultra” and “Hitman: Agent 47” won’t be able to keep up with the hip-hopper. The studio is adding locations this weekend to capitalize on the strong word of mouth and the film’s momentum. The Focus/Gramercy pic, made on a $10 million budget, will play across 2,766 theaters. The original, released by Summit in 2012, starred Ethan Hawke and got off to an $18 million start on its way to $48 million domestically and $77 million worldwide.
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“Sinister 2“, starring Shannyn Sossamon and James Ransome, is showing enough traction to be profitable for Focus – which is part of Universal. The first “Sinister” averaged a just-this-side-of-fresh 62 percent on Rotten Tomatoes, but the follow-up is coming in at 8 percent as of this writing. That should top a pair of spy pic openings with Fox’s “Hitman: Agent 47” taking around $8 million at 3,100 sites and Lionsgate’s “American Ultra” with $6 million at 2,778 locations.
The movie is also the best opening ever for a music biopic, exceeding the launch for Johnny Cash drama “Walk the Line” in 2005, which brought in $22.3 million, according to Box Office Mojo. Its total earnings now stand at $157.6 million. The comedy about a grandmother helping her granddaughter find the money to pay for an abortion, has earned rave reviews for its star Lily Tomlin, and picked up $120,856 on four screens, for per screen average of $30,214. And Submarine Deluxe’s “Station to Station” pulls into the Nuart in West Los Angeles.
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The weekend’s biggest movie, for a second week in a row, may have a new backer for its follow up.
