'Straight Outta Compton' brings box office with attitude
Also in Tattle: Disney announces Star Wars theme parks, a Breaking Bad coffee shop, Jason Derulos flight problems and more
"STRAIGHT OUTTA COMPTON" got people straight inta theaters this past weekend, blowing away estimates with just over $56 million. With a production budget slightly
under $30 million, "Compton" is destined to be more profitable than . . . Compton.
We're not talking Dr. Dre money, but still . . .
N.W.A. members Dr. Dre and Ice Cube served as producers on the film, which has Ice Cube's real son O'Shea Jackson Jr. playing his father. Dr. Dre also released the companion piece "Compton," - his first new album in 16 years.
According to exit polls, audiences for the R-rated film were evenly divided between genders, 51 percent were under the age of 30, 46 percent were African-American and 23 percent Caucasian.
And the other 31 percent were?
Come on, exit polls, don't leave Tattle demographically hanging.
Meanwhile, the PG-13-rated adaptation of the 1960s TV series "The Man From U.N.C.L.E." cried "uncle," debuting in third place (a sluggish $13.5 million), behind the PG-13 adaptation of another 1960s TV series, "Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation" ($17 million).
Jeff Goldstein, executive vice president of domestic distribution for Warner Bros. noted that "U.N.C.L.E" wasn't able to attract a significant younger audience, who were likely not familiar with the source material.
Duh. As we were arguing in the office the other day, the only reason to license an old property is because of name recognition, so if young people aren't familiar with a 50-year-old TV show, why bother? Make a spy movie with an original name.
But this probably means Tattle will never get a green light for our adaptation of "Green Acres."
"Fantastic Four" plummeted to $8 million to take the not so fantastic fourth-place spot, while "The Gift" took fifth with $6.5 million. The only thing fantastic about "Four" will be the tax write-off.
With "Straight Outta Compton," distributor Universal crossed the $2 billion mark domestically on Saturday - four months ahead of previous record-holder Warner Bros.
"Straight Outta Compton" is Universal's sixth film to open over $50 million in 2015 and broke the August record for an R-rated opening.
Ride the Death Star?
At D23 Expo 2015 Disney chairman Robert Iger announced that two "Star Wars" theme parks would would join the Disney universe.
One will be at Disney World's Hollywood Studios in Orlando while the other will be at Disneyland in Anaheim. At least until Disney can open a theme park on Tatooine.
Iger said attractions would include a Millennium Falcon ride and a Creature Cantina where guests can hang with humanoids, aliens and droids.
We're betting there will also be a gift shop.
To compete, maybe Universal's theme park will now add a "Straight Outta Compton" ride.
More on D23 tomorrow from Tattle's D23 correspondent, Jerome Maida.
'Breaking Bad' eggs
CNN.com reports that the hit cable series "Breaking Bad" lives on in Turkey.
Walter's Coffee Roastery opened in Istanbul in March after a (crystal meth offers some) Kickstarter campaign.
Founder Deniz Kozan originally planned to open Walter's in Brooklyn, but after he lost an investor, he moved the idea to Istanbul.
CNN says that staff at Walter's wear yellow hazmat suits and gas masks as if they were working in the lab of Walter White and Jesse Pinkman.
Coffee is served in beakers.
Patrons can eat "crystal"-topped cupcakes.
Basically, they have everything "Breaking Bad" except copyright permission, but they say they're safe.
When Walter's Cafes become as ubiquitous as Starbucks, however, someone's going to come looking for money.
TATTBITS
* TMZ.com reported that Jason Derulo and his entourage were booted off a Southwest Airlines plane in Reno, Nev., Saturday after one of Jason's bodyguards got into it with an airline worker after he was denied priority precheck.
When they boarded the plane anyway, airport security arrived and de-boarded them.
Jason made it to L.A. in time for his next show and told TMZ that in order to avoid airport hassles he was going to buy a private jet.
A little tidbit about Reno-Tahoe International Airport? It has a Burning Man art gallery.
* "Game of Thrones" creator George R.R. Martin told the New York Observer that he hopes the eventual ending of his "Song of Ice and Fire" novels will be not so much bloody as "bittersweet."
Of course, to dragons, all humans taste bittersweet.
- Daily News wire services
contributed to this report.
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