Box office preview: 'Transporter: Refueled,' 'A Walk in the Woods'

It’s been a busy summer at the box office, with dinosaurs, superheroes, and minions breaking records left and right. That won’t be enough to dethrone 2013 and its $4.7 billion total as the biggest summer ever, but 2015 still managed to score one of the best summers of all time — $4.4 billion, which is up more than 7 percent over last year’s dismal summer.

But as the summer of 2015 draws to a close this Labor Day weekend, the box office is expected to go out with less of a bang and more of a whimper. Only one film is expected to crack double digits for the four-day period: Straight Outta Compton, which could spend its fourth straight weekend at No. 1, thanks to a distinct lack of competition in the back half of August. This weekend’s two new releases are The Transporter: Refueled and A Walk In The Woods, neither of which are expected to contribute much to the summer’s final box office total.

Here’s how the box office weekend race might shape up. (All estimates are for the four-day period.)

1. Straight Outta Compton — $10 million

As the biggest box office story of August, Straight Outta Compton has already grossed more than $136 million domestically. The N.W.A. biopic should add another $10 million to that total over the long weekend, spending its fourth straight weekend at No. 1. If it does manage to hang onto the top spot for four weekends, it’ll be the first film to do so since Furious 7 back in April.

2. The Transporter: Refueled — $9 million

The fourth in the series, The Transporter: Refueled swaps out Jason Statham for Ed Skrein, and although it’ll be playing in about 3,400 theaters, Refueled is expected to open with the lowest Transporter debut yet: around $9 million for the long weekend. That’s about what the original opened to, earning $9.1 million over three days in 2002. To date, the series has grossed more than $100 million domestically.

3. War Room — $7 million

The faith-based War Room was last weekend’s surprise hit, surpassing No Escape and demolishing We Are Your Friends to end the weekend in second place. As one of the summer’s only faith-based films (and one of the only PG-rated films in theaters right now), War Room has targeted an underserved audience by reaching out to Christian leaders, and it should retain its spot in the top five this weekend, earning about $7 million over the four-day period.

4. A Walk In The Woods — $6.5 million

After more than a decade of Robert Redford trying to adapt Bill Bryson’s novel, A Walk In The Woods finally hit theaters on Wednesday, bringing in an estimated $1.2 million. The R-rated Woods is the first wide release for Broad Green Pictures, and it should earn about $9 to $10 million over its first six days — or about $6 to $7 million for the weekend.

5. Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation — $6 million

Fifth place could end up going to the Owen Wilson thriller No Escape, which opened to $8.1 million last weekend, but more likely than not, Rogue Nation will spend its sixth week in the top five, bringing in about $6 million over the long weekend. Rogue Nation has made more than $171.8 million since it debuted at the end of July, bringing the Mission: Impossible franchise total to more than $911 million.

•How the faith-based drama War Room became a sleeper hit

•Meet the new Transporter: Ed Skrein has refueled the action franchise

•A Walk In The Woods trailer: Robert Redford and Nick Nolte hike the Appalachian Trail

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