Hip-hop biopic Straight Outta Compton has topped the Box Office with an estimated $56.1 million.
The movie focuses on the groundbreaking group N.W.A which featured music heavyweights including Dr. Dre and Ice Cube. Their rise to fame from their humble beginnings in the dangerous Californian neighbourhood is chronicled in the movie, which is directed by F. Gary Gray. Dr. Dre also served as a producer on the flick, and admitted at the premiere that despite his involvement, he still got a surprise when he watched the finished version.
“It was goosebumps - a little bit surreal," he told Entertainment Tonight. “Some guys that came from nothing that created something that's just amazing."
The movie was made on a relatively small budget of $29 million and its success has overshadowed other rap movies such as Eminem’s 8 Mile, which took $51.2 million in 2002, and 2009’s Notorious, the story of Notorious B.I.G., which opened to $20.5 million.
The stars of the film include Ice Cube’s son O’Shea Jackson Jr. who plays a younger version of his father. His performance filled the 46-year-old with pride.
“He got everything right," he said. “When we was editing this movie, at certain points I was thinking we was looking at the young N.W.A."
The weekend’s other major release, Guy Ritchie’s reboot of The Man from U.N.C.L.E trailed with $13.5 million.
Meanwhile Marvel’s Fantastic Four dropped by a massive 69 per cent taking in $8 million to bring its cumulative purse to $41.9 million, placing it in fourth.
