Despite some mighty competition, Katniss and her crew dominated the box office once again.
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Cast members Liam Hemsworth, Jennifer Lawrence and Josh Hutcherson pose at the premiere of “The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2” in Los Angeles, California November 16, 2015.
“Mockingjay, Part 2” topped this weekend’s box office, defeating three newcomers with an estimated $75.8 million. The film has added $28.7 million internationally so far for a worldwide total of $84.3 million. On the other side, the Sylvester Stallone starrer movie ranked third, minting $42.6 million.
In fact, the top 20 titles of the year had a 112% spike in ticket sales on Black Friday over Thanksgiving day’s box office, according to Deadline (also helpful was an unseasonably warm holiday weekend on the east coast). Will it reach the $755.4 million of “Mockingjay – Part 1”? Compared with what most of us usually expect from a Pixar film, however, “The Good Dinosaur” was a disappointment, both critically and financially. The film played stronger than expected well with older crowds and the A CinemaScore suggests great word of mouth, meaning that this film should be able to power its way to a good $110 million or so. The film, starring Michael B. Jordan, reignites the “Rocky” franchise, receiving good reviews and an A CinemaScore rating.
“Mockingjay Part 2″ is still trailing the first “Mockingjay“, which earned $82.7 million over the five-day Thanksgiving weekend past year. That’s a solid result and the fourth highest five-day Thanksgiving opening, but it is somewhat disappointing given Pixar’s track record as the most successful provider of all-ages entertainment. Grossing an estimated $56 million, the prehistoric animated feature fell short of projections of more than $60 million.
WHAT DID YOU SEE at the movies this weekend?
“The Hunger Games: Catching Fire”, the second film installment, holds the highest gross among the “The Hunger Games” films, with an estimated worldwide gross of $424.7 million.
The weekend’s only other wide opening, Victor Frankenstein, starring Daniel Radcliffe, trudged its way to a mere $3.4 million from 2,797 theaters, one of the worst openings of all time for a major studio release.
Closing out the top-five this weekend was “The Peanuts Movie” from Fox with $9.7M domestically. Typically that might not be considered a huge hit, but the holiday weekend throws that math, and there’s no way around it: $200 million-plus through two weeks is good.
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The same week that Fox’s The Martian celebrates its ninth and most likely final week in the top 10, Fox Searchlight’s Brooklyn enters jumps three places to finish in the ninth position thanks to expanding from 115 to 845 locations.
