Universal’s “Straight Outta Compton” about the rise and fall of hip-hop group N.W.A debuted with a massive $60.2 million this weekend at the box office, but the location of the theater that sold the most tickets might surprise you.
While Los Angeles-area moviegoers turned out in force to see the biopic about the rise of West Coast rap, the top performing theater is actually located in Atlanta.
Among those who saw the film, 46 percent of the audience was African-American, 23 percent of all attendees were Caucasian, and 21 percent were Hispanic. In Southern California, the film performed best in downtown Los Angeles, Burbank and Hollywood, not in South L.A., which has a larger black population.
“Straight Outta Compton” recounts N.W.A’s rise from the streets of Compton and the group’s eventual breakup. It stars Corey Hawkins as Dr. Dre, Jason Mitchell and Eazy-E and O’Shea Jackson Jr. plays his real-life father, Ice Cube.
With a production budget of $29 million, the “Straight Outta Compton” rollout was in a relatively conservative 2,757 theaters, and it delivered an outstanding $20,345 per-screen average.
According to Universal, the top 10 performing theaters for “Straight Outta Compton” this weekend were as follows:
1. Regal Atlantic Station in Atlanta (Atlanta, GA)
2. Regal L.A. Live Stadium 14 (Downtown L.A.)
3. AMC Burbank (Burbank, CA)
4. Arclight Hollywood (Hollywood, CA)
5. AMC Orange 30 (Orange, CA)
6. Edwards Long Beach Stadium 26 (Long Beach, CA)
7. Pacific Theatres at the Grove (Los Angeles)
8. AMC Ontario Mills 30 (Ontario, CA)
9. Arclight Sherman Oaks (Sherman Oaks, CA)
10. Cinemark 18 in L.A.’s (Westchester, CA)