Universal box office record

Universal is having an banner year at the box office, and it’s about to get even better. Straight Outta Compton is currently playing in theaters this weekend, and the film will push Universal past the $2 billion mark Saturday at the North American box office.

The studio entered the weekend toting $1.958 billion, but the N.W.A. biopic from director F. Gary Grey will add at least $50 million, perhaps more. Universal estimates the film will earn approximately $57.2 million over its three-day opening.

This is the fastest it’s taken any studio to reach $2 billion domestically. Warner Bros. previously held the record, reaching that number in December 2009. That same year, WB set the all-time domestic record with $2.1 billion. With this latest development, however, Universal is expected to exceed that marker as well.

Universal’s year of box office glory began with Fifty Shades of Grey, which hit theaters in February; the film grossed $93 million over the four-day opening weekend and became the highest-grossing February debut. Furious 7 opened in April and continued to break records. The film is currently the fifth highest-grossing movie of all time and the third highest-grossing film of the year in the U.S. As if that wasn’t enough, Jurassic World stomped into theaters and surpassed expectations to become the third-biggest film of all time. Other Universal titles Minions and Pitch Perfect 2 are also within the top 10 highest-grossing films of 2015 in North America.

Straight Outta Compton, which dramatizes the formation and eventual disbanding of the iconic hip-hop group N.W.A., opened in theaters Friday and is tracking to become the weekend’s No. 1 film.

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