Box office: 'Straight Outta Compton' breaks out with massive $56.1M
Swaggering into theaters across North America, Straight Outta Compton beat all expectations, grabbing an estimated $56.1 million -; and leaving The Man from U.N.C.L.E., the weekend's other new wide release, which pulled in a meager $13 million, in its dust.
Universal's R-rated Compton, the biopic about the groundbreaking hip-hop group N.W.A., produced for just $29 million, posted a best-ever opening for its director F. Gary Gray and overshadowed other rap movies like Eminem's 8 Mile, which bowed to $51.2 million in 2002 and Notorious, the story of Notorious B.I.G., which opened to $20.5 million in 2009.
Produced by Universal and Legendary, the film stars O'Shea Jackson Jr. as his real-life father, Ice Cube, Corey Hawkins as Dr. Dre, Jason Mitchell as Eazy-E, Aldis Hodge as MC Ren and Neil Brown Jr. as DJ Yella. Opening in 2,751 theaters, it was produced by former N.W.A members Ice Cube and Dr. Dre (among others). Ice Cube, the producer, managed to beat his own best-opening as a lead actor, 2014's Ride Along, which opened to $41.5 million.
Warner Bros. PG-13-rated period spy tale TheMan From U.N.C.L.E. didn't strike much of a nostalgic chord among moviegoers. The movie, which cost $80 million-plus to produce, arrived in third place, behind the more muscular spy outing Mission Impossible - Rogue Nation. Directed by Guy Ritchie, the film, from Warners and Davis Entertainment, stars Henry Cavill and Armie Hammer as a CIA agent and a KGB operative who work on a joint mission against a mysterious criminal organization.
More to come.
