The weekend box office belongs to N.W.A. Universal’s music biopic Straight Outta Compton came out on top this weekend with a huge $56 million debut, defying expectations, nearly doubling its $29 million budget, and breaking the record for the biggest opening for an R-rated film in August. Directed by F. Gary Gray, the pic tells the compelling story of N.W.A.’s inception and subsequent rise in popularity. While African-Americans made up 46% of the opening weekend audience, the film actually demonstrated some serious crossover appeal, and played to women and men fairly equally. On top of mostly positive reviews, it earned an A CinemaScore from audiences. This is yet another another stellar performance from Universal Pictures, whose Trainwreck is now nearing the $100 million mark domestical. The studio already broke the record for highest grossing year ever, and it’s still only August.

The weekend’s other new wide release didn’t fare as well, however. Warner Bros.’ The Man from U.N.C.L.E. opened to just $13.5 million against a budget north of $80 million. Director Guy Ritchie’s light, stylish, and very fun spy pic combined the talents of Henry Cavill and Armie Hammer, plus current “it” performer Alicia Vikander from Ex Machina, but audiences simply didn’t turn out as expected. It’s possible the “back to school” crowd was too busy to be bothered with something this light, or maybe folks had their fill of the spy genre a couple weeks after the release of Paramount’s enormously entertaining Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation. It’s a shame too, because Man from U.N.C.L.E. is a lot of fun.


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Image via Warner Bros.

Speaking of Mission: Impossible, the Christopher McQuarrie-directed film dropped to the number two slot in its third week of release, nabbing another $17 million this weekend to bring its domestic total to an impressive $138.4 million. It’s performing spectacularly overseas as well, adding $235.3 in international grosses.

It was clear with last weekend’s paltry debut that 20th Century Fox’s Fantastic Four was no Guardians of the Galaxy, and the poorly reviewed superhero pic plummeted 68% in its second week of release with just $8 million. That brings its domestic total to $41.9 million, and it’s not fairing much better overseas with $60 million in international grosses, bringing its worldwide total to just $102 million. That’s not great for a new superhero reboot in this post-Marvel Cinematic Universe era.

Check out the weekend’s full Top 10 below.

Title

Weekend

Total

1.

Straight Outta Compton

$56,100,000

$56,100,000

2.

Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation

$17,000,000

$138,137,000

3.

The Man from U.N.C.L.E.

$13,535,000

$13,535,000

4.

Fantastic Four

$8,000,000

$41,961,000

5.

The Gift

$6,500,000

$23,577,000

6.

Ant-Man

$5,517,000

$157,568,000

7.

Vacation

$5,330,000

$46,852,000

8.

Minions

$5,200,000

$312,969,000

9.

Ricki and the Flash

$4,570,000

$14,656,000

10.

Trainwreck

$3,800,000

$97,919,000


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Image via 20th Century Fox