The VIPP Report: Straight Out of Compton tops this weekend’s box office

straight-outta

Well, the number says it all.  Universal’s N.W.A. biopic earned$56.1 million in its debut according to early estimates.  They nearly doubled what it took to make the $29 million dollar film.  Director F. Gary Gray’s film charts the formation and rise of the influential rap group.

N.W.A. members Dr. Dre and Ice Cube served as producers on the film, which has Ice Cube’s real son O’Shea Jackson Jr. playing his father.

Warner Bros. PG-13-rated adaptation of the 1960s television series “The Man From U.N.C.L.E.” debuted in third place, behind “Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation,” with what critics call a sluggish $13.5 million.

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The VIPP Report: Civil rights leader Julian Bonds dies at the age of 75

naacpphotoJulian Bond, a civil rights activist and longtime board chairman of the NAACP, has died.  The Southern Poverty Law Center says in a statement that Bond died Saturday night in Fort Walton Beach, Florida after a brief illness. The Nashville, TN native was considered an icon of the 1960s civil rights movement.

Bond is survived by his wife, Pamela Horowitz and five children.  Julian Bond was 75 years old.