Weekend Wrap-Up for September 4-6, 2015

War Room, Compton Battle Continues over Labor Day Frame

By John Hamann

September 6, 2015

War Room

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Straight Outta Compton is the devil to War Room’s angel. Finishing either in the #1 or #2 spot since August 14th, Compton has also used the calendar configuration to its advantage. By opening when it did, Universal knew they were going to be number one for a while. They could also keep the large venue count (it is still in 3,142 venues in weekend four) and despite a low venue average, this one is still earning, despite a drop compared to last weekend at 33%. Compton cost only $28 million to make, and Universal knew it couldn’t rely on grosses from countries like Japan to convert this into a success. With a domestic take so far of $147.8 million, Universal doesn’t need to worry about those overseas grosses, as this one is going to be just fine on its own.

Finishing third is A Walk in the Woods, the Robert Redford/Nick Nolte dramedy that opened on Wednesday. This one is an Oscar reject, and opens this weekend, as upstart Broad Green Pictures likely thought this was one of the few weekends it actually had a chance to perform. Seeing the Friday-to-Sunday take of $8.4 million shows us that this was a good decision. A Walk in the Woods was made for only $8 million, and with this start, it should be able to get to the $25 million it needs stateside and may see $30 million if the grey hairs continue to attend. This may also play a little overseas given Redford’s status as well as an appearance by Emma Thompson, which could really turn this into small pint success. Broad Green’s next big release comes in the form of 99 Homes, which is so far well reviewed, and stars Andrew Garfield and Michael Shannon.




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Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation keeps marching forward, as the Tom Cruise thriller is the last of the big summer films in the top 10. Rogue Nation earned another $7.2 million, off a slim 12% compared to last weekend. This is its sixth weekend, and has dropped on average about 35% per weekend. This is Tom Cruise’s second consecutive leggy hit after Edge of Tomorrow, and his fourth legs movies of his last six (Oblivion and Rock of Ages being the exceptions). Rogue opened to $55.5 million and has a domestic gross to date of $180.4 million, and should finish between $190 and $195 million. Overseas, Rogue Nation has pulled in more than $325 million and opens in China on September 8th.

Fifth goes to The Transporter Refueled. Distributor EuropaCorp didn’t put a lot of awareness effort into the release, likely saving that push for its debut away from North America. This weekend, the Jason Statham-less sequel earned a sad $7.1 million, well off the $12.1 million that Transporter 3 opened to in 2008. It’s important to note that the third Transporter grossed only $31.7 million stateside, but found a large $77 million overseas. That film was made for $30 million and made money. This one was made for less at $22 million (likely due to not having to pay Statham), but will be lucky to match that amount stateside. It has already earned $10 million overseas, so all should end up fine for Luc Besson’s Europa.


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