Perhaps the general public isn’t quite ready for a movie about electronic dance music DJs. Zac Efron’s We Are Your Friends has earned the dubious honor of being one of the Top 10 worst wide releases in film history and the worst ever by any of the major Hollywood studios. But at least it can find solace in the fact that the box office as a whole had its worst weekend of the year.
We Are Your Friends, which marked the feature directorial debut of Catfish’s Max Joseph, was released by Warner Bros. at 2,333 locations. It grossed just $1.8 million, giving it the fourth-worst debut for a film released to over 2,000 screens, according to Box Office Mojo data. The opening was so bad that it failed to even crack the Top 12 this weekend.
This was also the worst wide release ever by any of the major Hollywood studios. Warner Bros. previously held the record with 1998’s Major League: Back to the Minors, which only debuted to $2.08 million.
(For the record, the film with the overall worst wide opening ever is still 2012’s Oogieloves in the BIG Balloon Adventure, which opened to $443,901.)
The ‘winner’ of the weekend was Straight Outta Compton, which grossed just $13.2 million in its third weekend. The Universal film is up to $134.1 million domestically.
Even though it came in second, Sony’s faith-based, micro-budgeted and critically drubbed War Room still debuted to $11 million. Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation came in third with $8.3 million.
The third new release of the weekend, The Weinstein Company’s No Escape, made $8.28 million. Since the film had been in theaters since Wednesday, it is up to $10.3 million domestically.
Box Office Mojo reports that the Top 12 made just $68.8 million this weekend. That’s the worst of 2015 and 22 percent down from the same weekend last year.
image courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures