The Hunger Games finale earned $75.75 million over the five-day (Wed.--Sunday) period, which is a solid hold, though still behind Part 1, which brought in $82.75 over the same 5-day period last year. At this point, Mockingjay Part 1 had earned $225.7 million in North America versus $198.3 million for Part 2. Overseas, Mockingjay, Part 2 has now earned $242.4 million, which gives the film a worldwide cumulative of $440.7 million compared with $474 million for Part 1 after ten days of release.
It does appear likely that Part 2’s total will be down from Mockingjay Part 1’s worldwide gross of $755 million, but not by a lot—and since the series high water mark was Catching Fire’s $865 million total (with the first Hunger Games film earning what could be a series low $694 million), there is no doubt that Lionsgate made the right move financially (if not aesthetically) in splitting the third and final volume of the Hunger Games trilogy into two parts.
Pixar’s The Good Dinosaur debuted with a solid, but not spectacular, $55.6 million for the five-day weekend and $39.2 million for the Friday-to-Sunday frame. While it was the fourth best animated debut ever over the Turkey Day weekend, it was the third-lowest three-day weekend debut for a Pixar, behind A Bug’s Life’s $33 million in 1998 and Toy Story’s $29 million in 1995 (both of which would be bigger than The Good Dinosaur’s total if they were adjusted for inflation).
Still with an “A” CinemaScore from opening weekend audiences, which were composed of 80% families, 17% adults, and 4% teens, The Good Dinosaur appears to have the potential for a long run, even if its debut was less than stellar. The Good Dinosaur was (for Pixar) a fairly troubled production. Its original opening date was delayed 18 months, and its 77% positive rating on Rotten Tomatoes is low for a Pixar production, so expectations were not too high, and its box office fate is not yet set in stone.
The Turkey Day release with the most sizzle was Ryan Coogler’s Creed, a boxing drama starring Michael B. Jordan and Sylvester Stallone that could be considered Rocky VII. Creed has earned an excellent 93% positive rating on Rotten Tomatoes and got a solid “A” CInemaScore from an audience that skewed male (66%) and older (62% over 25) for the film that follows the adventures of the son of Apollo Creed (Jordan), who is mentored by his father’s old opponent Rocky Balboa (Stallone). Stallone is getting some Oscar buzz for his role, and, based on the audience reaction in social media, Creed has a real chance of nice long box office run, which could be extended even further if the film does garner some Oscar nods. Creed shouldn’t face much new competition until Star Wars opens on the 18th with only the holiday horror film Krampus and the whaling saga In the Heart of the Sea opening in the next two weeks. Though limited a bit by gender (boxing films don’t tend to attract a high percentage of female viewers), Creed demonstrated a wide demographic appeal. Caucasians made up 38% of the audience with African-Americans next at 30%, so it would appear that a nice solid box office run is likely.
Spectre, the latest James Bond film, slipped to fourth place in its fourth weekend of release as it earned $12.8 million and brought its domestic total to $176 million. Spectre, which has already passed the domestic totals of Quantum of Solace ($168 million) and Casino Royale ($167 million), doesn’t have a prayer of matching Skyfall’s $304 million North American total, but it has earned $750 million worldwide, which pretty much insures that the franchise will continue unabated.
The Peanuts Movie dropped just 26.5%, which was a strong hold in the face of direct competition from The Good Dinosaur. So far the Blue Sky Studios’ film has earned $116.8 million.
All the films in the top ten posted very low percentage drops as Thanksgiving traditionally makes for one of the biggest movie-going weekends of the winter season. The R-rated comedy The Night Before showed definite signs of life as it slipped just 17%, while the Julia Roberts-starring The Secret in Their Eyes posted what would have been, on an ordinary weekend, a very good hold, dropping just 32.3%, but given the film’s abysmal debut, that “good” hold netted only $4.5 million.
Two adult-skewing dramas, Spotlight, which documents the Boston Globe’s investigation into the priest abuse scandals, and the coming-of-age drama Brooklyn, both added theaters and boosted their grosses. So far Spotlight has made $12.4 million and Brooklyn has taken in $7.3 million. In order for films like Spotlight and Brooklyn, which are still in fewer than 900 theaters each, to earn the big bucks, they have to extend their runs over some months.
The final spot in the top ten was taken by the fall’s biggest hit, the hard sci-fi epic The Martian, which earned $3.3 million in its ninth weekend in theaters during which it has amassed a domestic total of $218.6 million.
Debuting at number 12, Fox’s Victor Frankenstein earned just $2.35 million from nearly 2800 theaters for a sorry average of $840 per venue. The horror film, which explores the Frankenstein myth from the point of view of Igor (played by Daniel Radcliffe), earned just $3.5 million over the five-day period. Originally slated to open in October of 2014, this troubled production, which has a lowly 23% positive rating on Rotten Tomatoes, was first moved to January and then bumped to November. Not every film that has its debut date changed turns out to be a flop, but movies with multiple release dates tend to have very checkered prospects.
Be sure and check back here next week to see how the heavily-hyped holiday horror film Krampus does, and if Mockingjay, Part 2 can top the box office for three straight weeks.