Another sleepy (and incredibly hot!) Labour Day weekend resulted, as expected, in less-than-impressive numbers at the North American box office.
Leading all films, rather surprisingly, is War Room, a Christian drama from director Alex Kendrick (Courageous, Fireproof), which succeeded in bumping Straight Outta Compton from the #1 spot it has held for the past three weeks. This is quite a feat for War Room — it’s a Week 2 release that suffered less than a 17% decrease in gross from its first week. It’s also a film that hasn’t even been released theatrically in Canada.
Straight Outta Compton came in at #2 after topping the chart for the past three weeks. The hip hop biopic is a big hit, though — and it’s really good! It has nothing to be ashamed of.
New releases A Walk in the Woods and The Transporter Refueled came in at #3 and 4, respectively. The former is a modest indie flick that was acquired at Sundance earlier this year, so its gross this weekend is a decent haul. The latest Transporter sequel, however, is surely being seen as a financial failure; this is the lowest opening gross yet for this franchise — and the reviews are pretty atrocious as well. This one won’t last long.
Mission: Impossible — Rogue Nation is a very resilient summer hit, coming in at #5 in its sixth week of release, though dropping two slots from last week. Also dropping two slots is military-coup thriller No Escape. Recent August releases The Man from U.N.C.L.E. and Sinister 2 are holding on at #7 and 8, respectively.
The second biggest story of the week, perhaps, is the debut at #9 of Mexican 3D animated film Un Gallo Con Muchos Huevos, which grossed above $3 million this weekend despite playing at only 395 theatres. In its first weekend, it boasted what is easily the highest per-theatre average in the Top 20. Spanish-language specialty releases often perform well, so expect this title to continue to impress throughout September.
Rounding out the Top 10 is the glorious Pixar hit Inside Out, which Disney rolled back out this weekend, adding over 2200 screens — likely hoping to capitalize on the holiday weekend. The results were not extraordinary, but here it is back near the top, so there’s clearly still an audience for this one.
| TW | LW | Title | Gross (est.) | Cumulative (est.) | Weeks in Release |
| 1 | 2 | War Room | $9,450,000 | $24,763,458 | 2 |
| 2 | 1 | Straight Outta Compton | $8,850,000 | $147,785,705 | 4 |
| 3 | N | A Walk in the Woods | $8,250,000 | $10,309,000 | 1 |
| 4 | N | The Transporter Refueled | $7,220,000 | $7,220,000 | 1 |
| 5 | 3 | Mission: Impossible — Rogue Nation | $7,180,000 | $180,416,692 | 6 |
| 6 | 4 | No Escape | $5,448,000 | $18,449,079 | 2 |
| 7 | 6 | The Man from U.N.C.L.E. | $3,445,000 | $39,374,148 | 4 |
| 8 | 5 | Sinister 2 | $3,432,000 | $23,766,803 | 3 |
| 9 | N | Un Gallo Con Muchos Huevos | $3,421,000 | $3,421,000 | 1 |
| 10 | - | Inside Out | $3,226,000 | $348,299,280 | 12 |
Source: Box Office Mojo
Keep an eye out midweek (once the final numbers come in) for our look at this week’s specialty box office.
What did you see this weekend?
