In one of the slowest Labor Day box office weekends on record, the small faith-based drama War Room has displaced the N.W.A. biopic Straight Outta Compton at the top of the American movie charts.

The ultra-low budget $3 million production, courtesy of brothers Alex and Stephen Kendrick, took $12.6 million over the four-day weekend to end the N.W.A. movie’s three-week reign at the top. The film has earned $27.9 million and, if projections are accurate, will be the biggest hit of the Kendricks’ careers, outperforming Courageous (2011, $34.5 million) and Fireproof (2008, $33.4 million).

War Room'War Room' has been a surprise hit, and has topped the American box office on its second week of release

It’s a further demonstration of the sizeable pulling power of religious audiences in America, and one of the only bright spots in what is shaping up to be the most sluggish weekend at theaters over a Labor Day weekend in a decade.

F. Gary Gray’s Straight Outta Compton slips to second spot, with a further $11.1 million gross meaning that it has passed the $150 million mark in the four weeks since it opened.

More: ‘Straight Outta Compton’ – movie review

In third place, A Walk in the Woods, an adaptation of Bill Bryson’s best-seller of the same name starring Robert Redford, Emma Thompson and Nick Nolte, made $10.3 million over its opening weekend. In fourth, Tom Cruise’s Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation took $9.3 million to bring up a grand total of just under $200 million.

Another performance of note was the Mexican-made, Spanish language animated comedy Un Gallo con Muchos Huevos ('A Rooster with Many Eggs'), which made an extremely impressive $4.4 million despite showing in just 395 locations.

Performing below expectations was Transporter: Refueled, the fourth instalment in the Transporter franchise which is trying to cope with life without its lead actor Jason Statham, whose has been replaced by Ed Skrein in the role of Frank Martin. The film opened strongly with first-day takings of $2.4 million, but this slowed up considerably and landed in fifth place overall with just $9 million.

Watch the trailer for War Room