Straight Outta Compton Gets Off To Strong Thursday Night Start, While Man From U.N.C.L.E. Has OK Thursday Night Numbers

After months of anticipation, Straight Outta Compton got off to a fantastic start last night, grossing $4.9 million at Thursday night showings. That's an incredible debut for an R-rated drama, and for comparisons sake, last weeks Fantastic Four movie, which cost more than four times as much as this $28 million music biopic, grossed 45% less at Thursday night showings. If Straight Outta Compton plays like the most recent summertime R-rated drama, Southpaw, it'll do about 13.9 times its Thursday night numbers, which would result in a $68 million opening weekend.



Compton made much much more at Thursday night showings than Southpaw though, which means it'll be more frontloaded, though it's guaranteed to make over $40-45 million for the weekend and is likely to exceed $50 million for its debut weekend. To say the least, I'm very interested to see how this one does over the weekend, as these Thursday night numbers foretell an extremely impressive financial performance.

Fellow newcomer The Man From U.N.C.L.E. wasn't a dud, but was far from a smash last, grossing $900,000 thousand at Thursday night showings. Compared to smaller action films from August 2014, the film actually fared pretty well; Into The Storm (which, like U.N.C.L.E., was distributed by Warner Bros.) made $800,000 at Thursday night showings, while it also exceeded the $875,000 made by established franchise Expendables 3.

If U.N.C.L.E. played like fellow non-sequel Into The Storm over the weekend, it would do about 21.5 times its Thursday night showing, which would result in a $19.45 million opening weekend. That feels like a reasonable place for the Guy Ritchie action film to land for the weekend.