‘Hunger Games’ Wins Box Office Over Thanksgiving Weekend


With a multitude of choices in different genres available to audiences to choose from, Hunger Games: Mockingjay — Part 2 wins the box office this Thanksgiving weekend, earning $51.6 million and $75.8 million Wednesday through Sunday. The Hunger Games: Mockingjay — Part 2 pulled in $21.25 million on Black Friday alone, earning an estimated $167.9 million since its release.

The last Hunger Games film opened the previous weekend, and while the film also won the top spot in the box office that weekend, it was the lowest opening of the entire series, only pulling in $101 million. While $101 million is certainly nothing to sneeze at, it was a disappointing low for the Hunger Games series, CNN Money reports.

Hunger Games Mockingjay Part 2
The Hunger Games: Mockingjay–Part 2 wins the box office this weekend. (Image via YouTube)

Mockingjay–Part 2 is still trailing Part 1 at the box office, which earned more last year over Thanksgiving with $82.7 million. Despite the low opening weekend, the Lionsgate films overall have been hugely successful, however, bringing in over $1.1 billion in the U.S. and $2.7 billion worldwide since the series debuted in 2012.

The Hunger Games series has stood as proof that, if properly handled, new massive brands can be created and can draw audiences around the world,” said Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst at Rentrak (RENT).

Disney and Pixar’s animated film, The Good Dinosaur, debuted this weekend and came in second behind Hunger Games at the box office. The film brought in $39.2 million Friday through Sunday, according to Moviefone. Costing $175 million to $200 million to produce, The Good Dinosaur grossed $55.6 million in its first five days in theaters. Families made up 79 percent of the audience for the film.

The release of The Good Dinosaur marked the first time Pixar has released two films in the same year. Back in June, Pixar also released Inside Out, which dominated the box office with a $90.4 million opening, according to the Hollywood Reporter.

Entertainment Weekly reports The Good Dinosaur is the second Pixar movie to not open No. 1 at the box office; however, the executive vice president of distribution for Disney, Dave Hollis, is looking ahead to what he believes will be a length stay for the film at the box office.

“This Pixar group has just been so consistent with high-quality storytelling that appeals to all audiences. This weekend’s result is another testament to the way they do things. We are off and running in a great way and also set up for a very, very long run.”

Creed, the seventh film in the Rocky series, also opened this weekend with a win at the box office, earning third place at the box office with $30.1 million. The film cost $35 million to make and has earned $42.6 million over five days. Sylvester Stallone reprises his character, Rocky Balboa, agreeing to train Apollo Creed’s son who wants to earn his own place in the ring. Michael B. Jordan co-stars with Stallone as Apollo’s son, Adonis.

Creed third spot at the box office
The film ‘Creed’ wins the No. 3 spot at the box office. (Image via YouTube)

“This is a movie that played broadly everywhere. You expect it to do well in the big markets and even the medium-size markets, but the small markets were just fantastic,” said Jeffrey Goldstein, executive vice president of domestic distribution for Warner Bros. “The boxing element really resonates.”

One movie which definitely did not win at the box office this weekend was Victor Frankenstein, which stars James McAvoy as Dr. Frankenstein and Daniel Radcliffe as Igor. The film didn’t even make the top ten, only earning $2.35 million from Friday to Sunday.

The movie takes place from the point-of-view of Igor and reportedly cost $40 million to make, Deadline reports. The film originally had been slated to open in October 2014, but ended up being moved to open over Thanksgiving weekend this year. Victor Frankenstein had a much better opening at the box office overseas where it pulled in $10 million.

CNN Money reports the Thanksgiving weekend box office was a win for Hollywood with ticket sales up around 12 percent compared to last year.

[Image via YouTube]

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