It was a rap weekend as the story of NWA scored big time. “Straight Outta Compton” took in $56.1 mil through Sunday on estimates. It’s a big achievement, although $24 million of it came on Thursday-Friday. Universal obviously expects a slowdown today. But with very little coming in the next week, “Compton” could start picking up steam from the curious, and people who might have been scared off by all that security talk. The movie opened to calm audiences, thank goodness.
“Man from UNCLE” cried “uncle”– $13.5 million for the weekend. That’s a total blow out. Surprising for so many reasons. It won’t affect Guy Ritchie, who’s always got another “Sherlock Holmes” in him.
Elsewhere, “Ricki and the Flash” pretty much caved. I don’t know what happened to this movie. But the set up for the audience and the release date were a problem. Touted as something important, with some real press, “Ricki” might have had a chance in October. Now it’s joined Sony’s other 2015 misfires in a heap. Was it because it came from the old Sony regime? A lot of work went into the making of that film. Jonathan Demme, Meryl Streep et al deserved better.
Meantime– surprise!~- “Southpaw” is chugging along nicely at $45 million and still very much attracting audiences. Jake Gyllenhaal will get a Golden Globe nom and an Oscar campaign. Well done.
