The James Brown biopic, Get On Up, has had a decent opening weekend, bringing in $14 million, good enough for third place behind the new August record holder Guardians of the Galaxy ($94 million) and Lucy ($18.2 million).
The movie was also the third best for the weekend top ten in per theater average, taking in $5,695 per screen, just $25 less than second place Lucy.
Starring Chadwick Boseman, Viola Davis, Dan Akyroyd and Octavia Spencer, the movie received generally favorable reviews with a 77% positive score from Rotten Tomatoes. Richard Roeper called it a "somewhat sanitized and over-directed biopic saved by Boseman's electric performance" while Peter Travers of Rolling Stone said "Boseman tears into the role like a man possessed. You can't take your eyes off him."
A new interview with Jack Bart, son of Brown's manager Ben Bart (played by Dan Akyroyd), and Jeff Allen, owners of Universal Attractions, points out a number of inaccuracies in the film. They spoke with the Hollywood Reporter, telling them that the funeral scene that shows Brown throwing dirt into the grave of Bart never happened as Brown didn't even attend.
The pair also dispute the way the relationship between Bart and Brown was portrayed. "So where they portray Ben as kind of following James Brown’s lead, it was the other way around. Everything that Brown knew or learned or accomplished was through Ben Bart’s tutelage."
