By now, most of you know that last weekend’s Straight Outta Compton debut was even bigger than first reported. With actual earnings of $60.2 million in its first three days, the NWA biopic is now the fifth biggest August debut of all time – topping the $60.1 million of 2002’s Signs. Other records Compton collected include the biggest R-rated August opening and the best opening of all time for a music-based biopic.

For its sophomore frame, Universal has added 200 locations to the Straight Outta Compton theatre count. But even without those extra venues, the F. Gary Gray pic was expected to take a second weekend on top of the box office. Compton earned an estimated $8.3 million on Friday and is expected to claim as much as $28 million this weekend. That will put the film well over the $100 million mark in North America and also within range of the highest-grossing musical biopic in history: 2005’s Walk the Line ($119.5 million).

Sinister 2, the sequel to 2012’s low-budget horror hit, was strongest of this weekend’s three new releases. From omnipresent horror producer Jason Blum (if you’re counting, I believe this marks his eighth major release of 2015), Sinister 2 came in second on Friday with an estimated $4.7 million. That puts the sequel on track for about $11 million in its first three days – off from its $15 projection and well below the $18 million launch of Sinister.


hitman-agent-47
Image via 20th Century Fox

Another sequel (of sorts) took fourth place on Friday. Back in 2007, Fox released a big screen version of the popular video game series Hitman that starred Timothy Olyphant. That film was not what you would call successful, opening with $13.2 million on its way to a $39.6 million domestic total. International sales got Hitman close to $100 million worldwide, which was apparently good enough to convince Fox to take another shot at the franchise. But eight years later, Hitman: Agent 47 isn’t proving that adapting video games is getting any easier. Agent 47 earned an estimated $3 million from 3,261 locations on Friday and should fall short of $9 million for the three-day weekend.

This weekend’s final new release is not a sequel, nor is it based on a well-loved video game series. Perhaps that’s why American Ultra found itself outside the top five yesterday? The R-rated dark comedy starring Kristin Stewart and Jesse Eisenberg earned an estimated $2.1 million from 2,778 locations, putting it on track for around $5.5 million this weekend.

Here’s Friday’s top six films, based on studio estimates:

 Title

Friday

Total

1.

 Straight Outta Compton

$8,300,000

$93

2.

 Sinister 2

$4,700,000

$4.7

3.

 Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation

$3,345,000

$149.4

4.

 Hitman: Agent 47

$3,085,000

$3

5.

 The Man From U.N.C.L.E.

$2,185,000

$21.4

6.

 American Ultra

$2,100,000

$2.1

 

sinister-2-poster