Movies With Butter

This is not what I was expecting heading into the weekend. In terms of this week’s new releases, I was expecting the order at the box office to be “No Escape,” “We Are Your Friends,” and “War Room.”

But based on matinee numbers, Christian drama “War Room” ends up on top. It’s looking to do about $3.5M today (Friday) for a weekend sum of $10M, which is nearly three times its budget. Score another victory for the big guy upstairs.

“No Escape,” the action thriller starring Owen Wilson and Pierce Brosnan, opened on Wednesday with an OK $1.2M, and is looking to run away with $8M for the weekend. The Weinstein Company bought the rights for $5M, so they’re probably fine with that.

Zac Efron’s party movie “We Are Your Friends” looks to be his first mainstream bomb. The trades are estimating it to attract just $2M-$4M worth of guests for the entire weekend; it was tracking to make $10M. This would be the actor’s lowest opening for a wide release. However, it only cost Warner Bros. $2M to distribute the film; even with marketing costs, they’re probably not losing much money on it.

Because “No Escape” and “We Are Your Friends” are both rated R, the trades note that business for both might pick up in the evening.

UPDATE 8/30: The big G.O.D. gave a good fight, but N.W.A. still #1.

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