Tupac Fans Showed Up For ‘All Eyez On Me’, Film Earned a $27 Million Opening Weekend
Tupac fans and supporters definitely showed up and showed out this weekend to give their support to the All Eyez On Me biopic. The highly anticipated Benny Boom-directed flick was able to earn a $27 million box office debut, which was much better than a lot of publications expected the film to do.
Early expectations for the film’s opening box office fell between $17 million and $23 million, but All Eyez On Me did that and then some.
Starring newcomer Demetrius Shipp Jr., Kat Graham (The Vampire Diaries), Lauren Cohan (The Walking Dead), Hill Harper (CSI: NY), and Danai Gurira (The Walking Dead), All Eyez On Me is a biographical film about the late hip-hop artist Tupac Shakur. The film’s title is a nod at Shakur’s fourth studio album that has the same name and was released in 1996. The biopic gave yet another nod to the late rapper by having the release date fall on what would have been his 46th birthday (June 16).
With $27 million as their opening box office number, it is obvious that some Tupac fans did flock to the legend’s life playing out onscreen. However, it placed third in this weekend’s box office. Cars 3 topped the weekend box office with $53 million, while Wonder Woman raked in $40.7 million. At this point, Wonder Woman has seen its third week in the box office, but still managed to far surpass the biopic in its debut weekend.
Overall, All Eyez On Me had a much smaller debut than the recently released biopic about NWA, Straight Outta Compton, which raked in $60.2 million its opening weekend. Similarly to All Eyez On Me, 2009’s Notorious had a much more modest opening weekend, bringing in $21.5 million. Considering, All Eyez On Me‘s $45 million budget, they have a lot of ground to make up if the biopic is not going to be considered to be a flop.
Late last week, actress Jada Pinkett Smith expressed how “deeply hurtful” she found the portrayal of her and Pac’s friendship in the film. She called it a “re-imagining” and delivered blow-for-blow in her tweets about the different lies the movie had told. Rapper 50 Cent also suggested that the movie was “trash,” sharing his thoughts and criticism of the movie via Instagram.
“Man I watched the 2 PAC film, that was some bullsh*t. Catch that sh*t on a fire stick trust me. LOL SMH TRASH,” the “In Da Club” rapper wrote in his caption.
“I just want you to keep me in mind when you watch that sh*t,” he continued. “Straight out of Compton was good. That was a bad movie man, 2PAC is suppose to be a classic they they fucked it up. John Singleton said it was wack, I had to see it for my self. Go check it out you gonna be mad as a mother f***er. I want my money back now!!! Some of yal think I’m hating. SMH nah go see it. When you walk out of ther motherf***er like this you gonna learn to listen to me.”
While some critics have called the biopic “worth seeing,” others have called it “clumsy and bland,” “sluggish and generic,” and have said that ultimately, “Tupac deserved a storyteller as good as himself.”
Given the criticisms the movie has already begun to receive from stars and critics alike, the film might end up landing on the flop side.
Photo Credit: Screenshot/YouTube
