The Black Friday box office belonged to “The Hunger Games: Mockingjay,” as the threequel cruised past newcomers “Penguins of Madagascar” and “Horrible Bosses 2” with a $24.1 million haul.
The Jennifer Lawrence film will likely earn around $82 million for the five-day Thanksgiving weekend. So far, “Mockingjay” has picked up a strong $192.7 million, and will be crossing the $200 million mark at some point today. While a strong performance, it's nowhere near its predecessor “Catching Fire,” which earned $253 million by this same point last year.
It's worth noting that “Mockingjay” experienced third-best Black Friday gross on record, following las year, when “The Hunger Games: Catching Fire” earned $31.6 million and Disney's “Frozen” warmed up to $26.8 million.
Overall, the box office is on the low side, with total holiday revenues coming up short compared to recent years. Rookies “Penguins of Madagascar” and “Horribles Bosses 2” are suffering disappointing opening weekend.
The DreamWorks Animation film waddled to $10.5 million on Friday, and has earned $20.7 million since opening Wednesday. It will likely make about $37 million over the long weekend, much lower than the initially projected $45 million.
Likewise, “Horrible Bosses 2” barely cracked the top five on Friday, adding $6.2 million to its total domestic haul of $13.5 million (it also opened Wednesday).
The comedy sequel — which reunites Charlie Day, Jason Bateman, Jason Sudeikis, Jennifer Aniston, and Jamie Foxx — will probably end up with $23 million or so by Sunday night. In comparison, the original earned $28 million over a three-day period in July 2011, and went on to earn $117.5 million domestically.
Meanwhile, in third place was Disney's “Big Hero 6,” which earned $7.7 million on Friday, bringing its domestic total to an impressive $156.1 million.
Christopher Nolan's “Interstellar” came in fourth, earning another $6.6 million on Friday. The sci-fi epic, which stars Matthew McConaughey, Anne Hathaway and Jessica Chastain has so far earned $137.8 million, a strong enough figure that's quite a bit lower than Nolan's usual box office haul.
Look for complete weekend estimates Sunday on HitFix.