1. Straight Outta Compton- $26.7M/$111.4M
Not surprisingly, the top two movies are holdovers this week as the new releases were pretty weak. Holding on to numero uno is the N.W.A. biopic Straight Outta Compton, which tumbled 56% but still managed a sizable $26M haul. It's already about a verse away from surpassing the $114M run of Eminem's 8 Mile, and has obviously out-performed other rap dramas such as Notorious ($44M) and Get Rich or Die Tryin' ($46M).
2. Mission: Impossible- Rogue Nation- $11.7M/$157.7M
3. Sinister 2 (review here)- $10.6M
One need look no further than Sinister 2 for an idea why Blumhouse is so successful. While the sequel to 2012's horror hit underperformed massively compared to its predecessor, the cost practically nothing to produce. That makes the $10M opening weekend seem like less of a big deal. The film stars Shannyn Sossamon and James Ransone, hardly household names and a definite step down from Ethan Hawke. But it also got considerably worse reviews, bad even by horror movie standards, and it's unlikely this will stick around long enough to hit Sinister's $77M total from before.
4. Hitman: Agent 47 (review here)- $8.2M
Was there anyone really clamoring for a reboot of Hitman, the action flick from 2007 based on the best-selling video game? Probably not, but at least that one, which cost about $20M, managed to hit $99M with Timothy Olyphant as its star. The sequel, Hitman: Agent 47 is an utter disaster for 20th Century Fox, with the Rupert Friend-led reboot missing the mark with $8M. The upshot is that the first movie did most of its business overseas, and that could be the case this time, as well.
5. The Man from UNCLE- $7.4M/$26.6M
A drop of 45% from last week is a decent hold for Guy Ritchie's spy flick, The Man from UNCLE. The problem is that it didn't do much before, so its two-week haul has to be disappointing for Warner Bros. It's obvious fans are turning to M:I5 to scratch their spy itch. This could all be rescued if the film does well overseas, but it's too early to judge how that will play out.
6. American Ultra (review here)- $5.5M
Not even big names like Kristen Stewart and Jesse Eisenberg could lift the stoner action-comedy American Ultra to a decent high. The fast-paced film opened with $5.5M, which is pathetic when one considers K-Stew's fans generally turn out for everything she does. Despite her and Eisenberg's best efforts to hype it, there has been little positive buzz about it from anyone. I can usually count on the legions of K-Stew's Twitter followers retweeting and sharing every decent word I write about her, but that didn't happen this time. Perhaps it's the film's odd combination of brutal violence and light-hearted laughs that confused people?
7. The Gift- $4.3M/$31M
8. Ant-Man- $4M/$164.5M
9. Minions- $3.7M/$319.9M
10.Fantastic Four- $3.6M/$49.6M
