Relative to the series’ trailblazing success, analysts deemed the film’s opening performance to be a disappointment, with Mockingjay – Part 2 now standing as the lowest-ranking installment of all four films based on its opening box office weekend.
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But despite being the highest-grossing film of the weekend in the USA, topping Spectre, Mockingjay – Part 2, also ended up accumulating the lowest U.S. opening figure with its estimated $101m (£66m) across the existing franchise. But, as fate would have it, a rough winter ruined what he thought would be an easy shoot, forcing that final scene to be filmed much later than expected – which probably wound up being a benefit. “Catching Fire”, opened even higher in 2013, at $158.1 million.
Part 2 opened in the top spot this weekend with $101M. So far, it’s grossed $154 million domestically. With all the focus on theHunger Games release, these two movies fell a little under the radar and will not have a significant impact on the box office in the upcoming weeks.
Since its 2012 debut, the Lionsgate films have been hugely popular bringing in over $1.1 billion in the US alone and helped turn Jennifer Lawrence (who plays heroine Katniss Everdeen) into one of the biggest stars in Hollywood. Its $14.6 million weekend brought the film’s domestic 21-day total up to $153.7 million, which is nowhere near where ‘Skyfall’ was at this point. Seth Rogen’s R-rated Christmas story “The Night Before”, which scored a 63 percent approval rating at Rotten Tomatoes and an A- at CinemaScore, could only deck the halls with $10.1 million. Granted, the competition was stronger for this comedy than it would have been at the start of December. The Peanuts Movie followed with $12.8 million, so its domestic total is now at $98.9 million. It was late summer, we could have done the final scene of the movie – I just felt like it was emotionally wrong to do the final, final, final scene of the series right upfront before we shot these two movies. This is why the $101 million opening weekend gross of “Mockingjay” would in any way be counted as less than stellar.
Check back each week for box office previews and results and the latest movie reviews from 22News. Perhaps the popularity of the book series is waning. When it’s The Hunger Games.
“The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2” is the final film of Suzanne Collins’ best-selling young adult saga.
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Alas, while watching Mockingjay – Part 2, my curiosity and excitement tapered, and even though this fourth and final chapter isn’t exactly a letdown, it’s also not as compelling as its predecessors. However, it’s all but inevitable that the new “Star Wars” film will topple “Mockingjay” in mid-December if it can hang on that long.
