Straight Outta Compton Rakes In 56.1 Million First Week
The numbers are in, and Hollywood can officially crown F. Gary Gray as the box office king for directing a platinum film. Universal Pictures along with the financial help of Legendary Pictures gave Gray a budget of $29 million to make Straight Outta Compton, in which, he successfully exceeded the studio’s box office predictions by bringing in double the cost it took to make it at a whopping $56.1 million. “Compton” has since reportedly debuted to $60.2 million which has broken barriers across all boards.
The powerful film documenting legendary rap group N.W.A. earned itself a few titles as the fastest grossing musical biopic and the fifth highest August opener ever. Compton’s skyrocketing success has pushed Universal well over the $2 billion domestic mark within its first weekend. “Universal celebrated the quickest rise to $1 billion domestic ever and just last week broke the record for the highest-grossing box office year in global industry history when it reached $5.53B worldwide.”
Universal has taken the No. 1 box office spot 11 times in 2015 with Jurassic World raking in $1.5 billion worldwide six-weeks after its U.S. release, Furious 7 pulling in $1.32 billion worldwide within the first month’s release, Minions totalling $400 million worldwide, Fifty Shades of Grey sliding in an easy $502 million worldwide, and Pitch Perfect 2 rolling in $107.5 million.
So who really takes the cake? I would say Universal Pictures could keep the cake and F. Gary Gray can wear the crown.
