The Hunger Games: Mockingjay, Part 1 (our review) opened slightly smaller than its predecessors, but is holding just as well, dropping 53% in its second weekend on its way to $56.8 million domestic for the weekend. And more importantly, $480 million worldwide cumulatively. And it hasn’t even opened in China yet.
The Lions Gate Entertainment action sequel earned $56.875 million over its Fri-Sun frame, down “just” 53% and a robust $82.6m over the holiday frame. That’s the third-biggest Wed-Sun totals respectively, behind The Hunger Games: Catching Fire ($74m/$109m) and Frozen ($67m/$93m) last year. It’s actually the fifth biggest Fri-Sun Thanksgiving frame as Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone and Toy Story 2 both made $57m over their Fri-Sun frames but ended up with $82m and $80m respectively over the long frame. [Forbes]
Or, to put it in layman’s terms, “It made a shitload of money and everyone is stoked.”
Business wasn’t as brisk outside of the Capitol, however (see what I did there?), as overall box office was down 20% from last Thanksgiving. The new releases were Penguins of Madagascar, which was a disappointment, and Horrible Bosses 2 (our review) which was sort of a flop, earning $15.7 million on a $40 million budget, “well behind projections.” Tracking numbers had it grossing $35 million, proving once again that tracking companies are kind of a scam. The first Horrible Bosses had a $28 million opening on the way to $209.6 million worldwide, but some jokes don’t deserve to be told twice. Oh well, it looked like the cast at least had fun.
From DreamWorks Animation and Fox, Penguins placed No. 2 with $36 million for the five days, one of the lowest numbers for an animated film opening over Thanksgiving, not accounting for inflation, although it did best DreamWorks’ ill-fated Rise of the Guardians ($32.3 million). That includes a weekend take of $25.8 million. [HollywoodReporter]
But at least they can take solace in not having worked too hard coming up with the concept.
That’s about it for this week. Join us again next week, which brings us… well… nothing, actually, at least not in wide release. Wild will be getting five screens and The Pyramid 55o, so if you live outside of the major markets, it’s a good time to catch up on Birdman, Nightcrawler, Gone Girl, Whiplash, etc.