'Straight Outta Compton' Tops Box Office Opening Weekend with $56.1 Million

Straight Outta Compton hit the top of the box office during its opening weekend, garnering $56.1 million in ticket sales. The N.W.A. biopic has been earning nationwide enthusiasm over the last few months, as the story of the former rap group has finally been put into movie formation. Ratings for the music film have been positively high after hitting 2,757 theaters all over the country. The overall budget for Straight Outta Compton was originally $29 million, and has been nearly doubled in its opening weekend alone. Reports say that the opening weekend for the movie is the sixth-biggest August debut ever, the tenth-biggest R-rated debut of all time, and double the previous best debut for a musical biopic.

As other musical films with smaller debuts, such as Walk The Line and Ray, were immediate contenders for Academy Awards, Universal/Comcast Corp is reportedly launching a campaign to push Straight Outta Compton to be put under the same consideration.

The F Gary Gray-directed biopic not only covers the story of 80’s rap group N.W.A., but also covers controversial issues of racial tension and police brutality, which audiences find relevant to today’s protests. While the role of Ice Cube in the iconic group was played by his own son, O’Shea Jackson Jr., Corey Hawkins portrayed Dr. Dre, Jason Mitchell played the role of the late Eazy-E, Aldis Hodge took on MC Ren, and Neil Brown Jr. played DJ Yella.

According to reports, Universal Studios helped some of the theaters across the country pay for extra security where it was requested, despite no incidents being reported at any cinema throughout the weekend. The marketing behind the movie has been quite extensive in recent weeks, including numerous large outlet interviews, SnapChat features, Instagram filters, and even planes writing in the skies across some areas of California.