WAR ROOM Seems to be Doing Well So Far: Get Out There and Go See It!

I looked at the early returns on the faith-based, Christ-glorifying latest movie by the Kendrick brothers:  WAR ROOM.  Here’s one very encouraging report from Deadline: Hollywood:

1ST UPDATE, Friday 8:13AM: The faith-based film War Room, from Fireproof director Alex Kendrick, started its weekend early last night with a $600,000 take from 1,017 theaters. The film, which is being handled by Affirm/TriStar, will expand to 1,135 locations today and is on track for a $4M-$5M opening.

But wait – there’s more – when the afternoon numbers come in, surprise:

Interestingly, NRG thought War Room would only pull in $3M total, according to its tracking service. The faith-based films, however, always seem to surprise and this one just might as it plays throughout the weekend. Look for maybe an $8.5M to $10M run. War Room is leading in ticket sales going into the weekend.

And the evening numbers show War Room perhaps outdoing Straight Outta Compton:

Affirm/Tri-Star’s faith-based title War Room looks to have edged out Universal/Legendary’s Straight Outta Compton, $3.8M to $3.7M at Friday’s B.O. This could all change by Saturday’s sunrise, but there’s no doubt that Alex Kendrick’s film about a strained family that finds redemption through an elderly lady’s war room of prayer is coming on strong. It could make $10M-$10.8M for the weekend, which is 100% more than the industry was projecting it to be at 1,135 theaters. War Room could easily become Kendrick’s highest opener ever after 2011’s Courageous ($9.1M), also from TriStar. As of tonight, War Room is expected to slot second behind Compton for the weekend.

Variety, the leading newspaper in Hollywood, had this wonderful deadline:

Box Office: Zac Efron Trounced by Faith-Based Film ‘War Room’ on Thursday

Trounced!  I like it and here’s more from Variety:

Zac Efron’s “We Are Your Friends” was pummeled by the faith-based film “War Room” on Thursday night.

Sony’s Christian drama launched with $600,000 at 1,017 locations at Thursday preview screenings, while Warner Bros.’ DJ movie generated a mild $175,000.

But there’s this report that the critics hated War Room (surprise, surprise!):