People are either going to focus on the fact The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1 as a winner or a loser this weekend. On one hand, with a $123 million opening it has managed the 15th best ever domestic opening, just behind Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 (coincidence?). Of course, that number is 22% less than what The Hunger Games: Catching Fire brought in last year and even 19.5% less than what The Hunger Games opened with in 2012. The difference?
One big difference is Mockingjay didn’t play in IMAX theaters thanks to Interstellar hogging them all. On the bright side, Mockingjay brought in an additional $152 million overseas. It also scored an “A-” CinemaScore from opening day audiences, though I think even that will be looked at as low considering opening day audiences for this film are likely to be packed with non-discerning fans, not to mention both the first film and Catching Fire scored an “A”. But all-in-all, $123 million is damned good, though I will be curious to see how it holds over as I don’t think Mockingjay has anywhere near the “rewatch” appeal Catching Fire had as it went on to make $864.9 million worldwide.
In second is Big Hero 6, adding another $20 million to its $135.7 million domestic cume and Interstellar finished its third weekend in release with $15 million. Christopher Nolan‘s film is now up to $120.5 million domestically.
No big surprise with Dumb and Dumber To‘s sophomore session. The “B-” CinemaScore put the writing on the wall last weekend as the too-late comedy finished fourth, dropping 62% this weekend for a $13.8 million finish.
Jumping into the top ten this weekend while playing in only 140 theaters, The Theory of Everything‘s three day estimated gross comes in at $1.5 million for a solid per theater average of $10,714.
Next week sees the release of Horrible Bosses 2 and Penguins of Madagascar on Wednesday, ahead of the Thanksgiving holiday weekend, which is when The Imitation Game will have its limited opening on Friday. Any early thoughts on any of these? I’ve seen Horrible Bosses 2 and enjoyed it, but it feels like bad timing and can Penguins garner any attention with Big Hero 6 still at the top of the box office?
