Shia LaBeouf’s Box Office Winning Streak Over With ‘Lawless’

Shia LaBeouf has made nothing but box office smashes for the past few years, but now his streak of No. 1 box office movies has come to an end with the release of Lawless this weekend.

The Depression-era crime drama about an illegal alcohol bootlegger earned second place at the box office the weekend, making just $9.7 million between Friday and Sunday. For Shia LaBeouf, it ended a personal streak of seven consecutive movies that opened at No. 1 at the box office, dating all the way back to the 2008 movie Disturbia, E! News noted.

There are a couple of caveats to the end of Shia LaBeouf’s streak. Lawless technically did open at No. 1 but only on its release date of Wednesday when it didn’t have other new movies to compete with, the entire weekend is the standard for measuring No. 1 releases. Also, the animated film Surf’s Up was not included on the list.

Lawless marks a bit of a different tone from the string of big-budget Hollywood movies Shia LaBeouf had made lately, Reuters noted. While his movies of late included the Transformers series and the latest Indiana Jones installment, for Lawless, LaBeouf opted for a dramatic challenge.

Shia LaBeouf said the movie, which is based on author Matt Bondurant’s “The Wettest County in the World,” a fictional account of his family in Prohibition-era Virginia, connected him to his own childhood.

“In terms of the character’s emotions, the things he goes through, where he winds up, what he’s dealing with, the family elements, the alpha male fight, it was all things that resonate with me heavily,” Shia LaBeouf told Reuters.

Shia LaBeouf may not be starting a new box office streak for a while. His next movie set for release is The Company You Keep, a historical piece about the Weather Underground, and he is filming the porn-as-art-film The Nymphomaniac, a movie where he will be performing real sex scenes.