In repeat fashion, The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2 scored its second straight weekend at the top of the domestic box office over Thanksgiving weekend. Holding off impressive newcomers The Good Dinosaur and Creed, Mockingjay – Part 2 scored a $52 million turkey-stuffed second outing.
The fourth and final film in The Hunger Games franchise slipped a light 49.3%, which is the smallest drop for the franchise in its second weekend. Considering many people were disappointed with the $102 million opening weekend (a steep decline from the first two films’ opening gross was hard to ignore), this seems to placate some of the criticism of the diminishing star power of the franchise, which is preposterous for a film that has already crossed the $400 million mark worldwide. At this point its safe to say Mockingjay – Part 2 is a bonafide hit.
Coming in at second place is Pixar’s newest film, The Good Dinosaur. Grossing $39.1 million ($55 million over the five-day gross), this is a new low point in terms of opening weekend for the animation studio juggernaut, whose previous film Inside Out grossed $90 million in its first weekend on its way to a total cume of $356 million earlier this year. While on the surface the gross seems disappointing, this time of year many films open to lesser grosses but have longer box office life spans due to the holidays and families traveling. Something tells us The Good Dinosaur is in it for the long haul.
The revival of the Rocky series nabbed the third spot with Creed bringing in $29.6 million ($42 million over the five-day gross). Shifting from protagonist Rocky Balboa to Apollo Creed’s son (Adonis Johnson) and casting up and coming actor Michael B. Jordan proved a shrewd move on the part of producers, as new life was breathed into the 40-year old franchise. Having already grossed over half of the total take of the last film in the series – 2006’s Rocky Balboa grossed $70.2 million – it looks like Rocky, or better yet Adonis Johnson, is here to stay for a while.
Capping of the new releases this week was the Daniel Radcliffe and James McAvoy vehicle Victor Frankenstein, which was complete flop taking in just $2.4 million over the weekend. That’s one of the worst weekends for a film opening in over 2,500 theatres. Meanwhile Spotlight and Brooklyn continue to do great business in limited release (less than 900 theatres), grossing $4.4 million and $3.9 million respectively – which also give insight into just how bad Victor Frankenstein is performing. Spotlight is considered the early frontrunner for Best Picture with glowing reviews to go along with it.
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