You can't watch Straight Outta Compton in Compton
If you're looking to see Straight Outta Compton in its namesake city, you better wait for the DVD.
The N.W.A. biopic — which earned more than $50 million at the box office over the weekend — isn't playing in Compton because the city does not have a movie theater. "It's a low income area, it's been heavily dis-invested in," Manuel Pastor, a professor of sociology at USC, told CBS Los Angeles. "When you live in a community that doesn't have that kind of retail, it's a sign that the community is devalued and people within the community feel devalued."
Compton City Manager Johnny Ford said things are changing: Negotiations are underway to open an entertainment complex with a 16-screen movie theater, and Dr. Dre says royalties from his new album Compton, a companion piece to the movie, will be used to build a new arts and entertainment center for local kids. Retailers are excited to be opening up shop in Compton, Ford said, and "that's what it's all about."
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Catherine Garcia is night editor for TheWeek.com. Her writing and reporting has appeared in Entertainment Weekly and EW.com, The New York Times, The Book of Jezebel, and other publications. A Southern California native, Catherine is a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.
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