Film fans may perhaps be forgiven for feeling a sense of déjà vu this week, as The Hunger Games: Mockingjay—Part 1 once again emerged triumphant at the weekend box office for the third straight weekend, continuing to assert the late year commercial blockbuster power of the Hunger Games franchise. Netting another 21.6 million, the third entry in the franchise’s quadrilogy took the top spot in what turned out to be the second-worst earning weekend of the year at the domestic box office. The only other movie to earn over $10 million on the weekend was Dreamworks’ Penguins of Madagascar, which once again finished in second place, this time with $11.1 million.
The overall drop in box office profitability also resulted in Horrible Bosses 2 climbing up from its 6th place finish last week to 3rd place this week, despite a drop in revenue of almost 50%, as it ended with $8.6 million. The duo of Big Hero 6 and Interstellar continued to stay conjoined, finishing in 4th and 5th place respectively, with less than a million in revenue separating the two. David Fincher’s Gone Girl continued its strong commercial showing by retaining a spot in the top 10, as its $1.5 million take over the weekend was good enough for 8th place. The week’s only wide release, The Pyramid, was the only new entry in the top 10, earning $1.3 million to land in 9th place, pushing out St. Vincent in the process.
The most notable limited release of the weekend was Jean-Marc Vallée’s Wild. The Reese Witherspoon-starring biopic took in $630,000 from the 21 theatres it opened in, for a PSA of $30,000. Every other limited release opened on only one theatre, with the Israeli military comedy Zero Motivation leading the way with a revenue of $9,692.
The top earners at the US box office for the weekend is as follows:
- The Hunger Games: Mockingjay—Part 1 — $21,600,000
- Penguins of Madagascar — $11,100,000
- Horrible Bosses 2 — $8,600,000
- Big Hero 6 — $8,130,000
- Interstellar — $8,000,000
- Dumb and Dumber To — $4,169,000
- The Theory of Everything — $2,668,000
- Gone Girl — $1,500,000
- The Pyramid — $1,350,000
- Birdman — $1,150,000