It was a tight race. In fact “War Room” actually took Friday, but it still fell to “Straight Outta Compton” in the end. However, a fight for the top in the worst weekend of the year really isn’t a great fight. “War Room” was yet another Christian themed film that seemed to sneak into the Top 5.
“No Escape” was another newcomer but it couldn’t gain much traction and ended up coming in behind a 5th week “Rogue Nation” but still ahead of a failing “Sinister 2.” You won’t see Zac Effron’s latest, “We Are Your Friends.” anywhere. It didn’t even make the Top 12 and averaged about $758 per screen, not great.
Next week doesn’t look much better, as the only new film in wide release is Robert Redford and Nick Nolte stumbling through an Appalachian hike through.
| Rank | Title | Studio | Weekend Gross | % Change | Total Gross | Week # | |||||
| 1 | Straight Outta Compton | Uni. | $13,133,560 | -50.2% | $134,019,735 | 3 | |||||
| 2 | War Room | TriS | $11,351,389 | – | $11,351,389 | 1 | |||||
| 3 | Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation | Par. | $8,155,581 | -28.8% | $170,242,111 | 5 | |||||
| 4 | No Escape | Wein. | $8,111,264 | – | $10,172,124 | 1 | |||||
| 5 | Sinister 2 | Focus | $4,665,341 | -55.7% | $18,526,943 | 2 | |||||
A quick note on budgets and dollar figures:
Films making back their budgets is a good sign, but that is just the money to film. It doesn’t include distribution and marketing. Marketing can cost as much as a film. That big Superbowl spot is spendy. So take that into account when judging a film’s success. Hitting $100 million isn’t the same as it once was.
All dollar amounts in the top 5 come from estimates based on ticket sales unless noted otherwise. Occasionally this article will be published when actual results come out, which is usually late Monday afternoon. For more about this and other ins and outs of movie tracking click here.