North America’s moviegoers continue to choose “Straight Outta Compton” as the most popular movie this weekend, and the rap music flick is again the box office champ.
The Universal hit was on track to sell another $13.2 million in tickets this weekend, bringing its three-week gross sales total to $134.1 million domestically, and $140.9 million worldwide.
A Sony movie aimed at middle America’s religious audience, “War Room,” debuted in second place. Movie industry analyst Paul Dergarabedian called that “whopping.”
Dergarabedian said the PG-rated, faith-based drama was “proving that in a sea of R-rated fare, the film benefited from filling a void in the marketplace for a largely underserved audience” that does not want to see racy movies.
In its fifth week of exhibition, Paramount’s “Mission: Impossible Rogue Nation” was in third place, with $8.3 million in weekend sales and a running domestic total of over $170 million.
“No Escape” opened in fourth place, as the R-rated action thriller was on track for $8.3 million in weekend sales. Adding in Wednesday and Thursday receipts brings its running total to $10.3 million.
“Sinister 2” was fifth, with a $4.7 million weekend and $18.5 run over two weeks.
This weekend was also lowest box office-returns weekend this year. Sales were down 22 percent compared to this time last year, according to Box Office Mojo.
Rounding out the 10 most popular movies in the United States and Canada, as estimated by the studios and gathered by Rentrak, were “Man From U.N.C.L.E.” ($4.4 million), “Hitman: Agent 47” ($3.9 million), “The Gift” ($3.1 million), “Jurassic World” ($3.1 million) and “Ant-Man” ($3 million).
— City News Service