Box Office: ‘No Escape’ Gets Jump on Slow Weekend With $1.2M Wednesday

Universal hit Straight Outta Compton is widely expected to stay at No. 1 in its third weekend, trumping a trio of sleepy late-summer entries.

One of the new films, No Escape, decided to get a jump on the competition by opening Wednesday. The political action-thriller, starring Owen Wilson, Lake Bell and Pierce Brosnan, debuted to a modest $1.2 million to come in No. 2 behind Compton, which earned $2 million for a domestic total of roughly $118 million.

No Escape, from The Weinstein Co., is expected to gross $10 million-$12 million over the course of its five-day debut, including a projected $8.5 million-$9 million for the three-day weekend. The movie is playing in 3,007 theaters.

Straight Outta Compton is pacing to earn $15 million-$16 million for the frame, easily putting it ahead of No Escape and the other two new films, We Are Your Friends, starring Zac Efron, and Christian drama War Room, both of which roll out Friday.

Warner Bros. is releasing We Are Your Friends in North America on behalf of Working Title Films and StudioCanal. The movie, pacing to open to $8 million-$10 million from 2,300 locations, stars Efron as a young DJ trying to break into the electronic dance music scene. Wes Bentley and Emily Ratajkowski also star.

War Room, from TriStar’s Affirm label and Kendrick Brothers Productions, is opting for a much smaller footprint with a location count of under 1,500. The drama is the fifth collaboration from brothers Alex and Stephen Kendrick, the directing and producing team behind such faith-based films as Fireproof and Courageous.

The movie tells the story of a struggling family who searches for a solution through prayer. T.C. Stallings, Elizabeth Becka and Noel Baker star. War Room is doing brisk business in terms of advance ticket sales — not unusual for a faith-based film — and is expected to open in the $5 million range.

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