*The three-week reign at the top of the box office has come to an end for “Straight Outta Compton” thanks to moviegoers searching for faith-based entertainment
That spot is now occupied by the “War Room” which triumphed over the Labor Day weekend with early figures showing it taking in an estimated $9.4 million Friday through Sunday from 1,526 locations.
The success of the faith-based drama, which centers around a woman who turns her closet into a “war room” in order to regain her spiritual footing in a quest to save her rocky marriage, is another notch for the Kendrick Brothers and their relationship with Sony Entertainment. The siblings last movie with the studio, 2008’s “Fireproof,” proved fruitful as it generated $33.5 million at the domestic box office. “War Room” is the Kendrick brothers’ fifth collaboration with Sony.
“Though we increased our print count a bit, it’s still not as wide as some of these other releases — and to have this sort of result is just stunning,” Rory Bruer, Sony’s head of distribution, told the LA Times. “I think it truly shows the Kendrick brothers really know how to speak to audiences in a way that resonates.”
As for “Straight Outta Compton,” it took second place at the box office, with an additional $8.8 million raked in over the three-day weekend. Despite its ranking, ticket sales for the N.W.A. biopic dropped by 33% from last weekend. As it stands, now the domestic total for “Straight Outta Compton” amounts to $147.8 million.
In third place was Broad Green Pictures’ “A Walk in the Woods” which made $8.2 million over three-day weekend. The Robert Redford and Nick Nolte-starring film’s early release on Wednesday (Sept. 2) helped as it made a total of $10.2 million.
At No. 4 was Paramount Pictures’ “Mission: Impossible — Rogue Nation,” which earned $7.2 million more to bring its total domestic to about $180.4 million. On Sunday (Sept. 6), the studio announced that the Tom Cruise headlining fifth film in the blockbuster franchise has crossed the $500-million milestone in worldwide box office.
Rounding out the top five was “The Transporter Refueled.” Despite starting off strong Friday with $2.4 million in ticket sales, negative word of mouth resulted in business dropping off for the new film as it brought in $7.1 million on its opening weekend.
Overall, Universal and Disney ruled the summer box office this year with Universal’s “Jurassic World” among the films that did well. The Chris Pratt starrer joined the billion-dollar club over the weekend with crossing $1 billion overseas.
On the Disney side, this year will go down as the studio’s first billion-dollar summer with it making a projected $1.088 billion from the May 1 through Sept. 7 to close out the summer.
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