The Hunger Games tops the box office for a fourth straight weekend, while In the Heart of the Sea sinks in its debut
With the release of Star Wars: The Force Awakens just a few days away, audiences didn’t show much interest in newcomer In the Heart of the Sea, allowing Lionsgate’s The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2 to top the box office for a fourth straight weekend. Mockingjay – Part 2 added $11.3 million its fourth weekend to bring its domestic total to $244.5 million. Internationally, the film earned $15.4 million for an overseas total of $320.1 million and worldwide sum of $564.6 million. The first film in the franchise made $694 million worldwide. The second installment, Catching Fire, is still the best performer with $865 million, while last year’s Mockingjay – Part 1 took in $755.4 million worldwide.
Opening in second place, director Ron Howard’s In the Heart of the Sea (Warner Bros. Pictures), starring Chris Hemsworth, Benjamin Walker, Cillian Murphy, Ben Whishaw, Tom Holland, Brendan Gleeson and Jordi Mollà, grossed an estimated $11 million from 3,103 theaters, an average of $3,547 per theater. It’s not a promising start for the “Moby-Dick” tale, which cost $100 million to make, not counting marketing expenses. Word-of-mouth may also not be great, considering the film received a B+ CinemaScore. Hemsworth is not having much luck outside of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. His last collaboration with Howard, 2013’s Rush, earned just $26 million domestically, and earlier this year blackhat took in just $8 million.
Remaining in third place was Disney•Pixar’s The Good Dinosaur, which earned $10.5 million domestically and has grossed $89.7 million domestically. Internationally, the film collected $14.3 million for a foreign total of $78.2 million. Worldwide, the Peter Sohn-directed The Good Dinosaur has earned $167.9 million but hasn’t really brought in audiences like Pixar’s earlier 2015 hit, Inside Out, which earned an impressive $851.6 million worldwide.
Also keeping its fourth spot was Warner Bros.’ release Creed. The Sylvester Stallone and Michael B. Jordan-starrer added $10.1 million its third weekend and pushed its total to $79 million. The movie was produced for about $35 million.
Legendary and Universal’s Krampus rounded out the top five with $8 million and the film has earned $28 million in two weeks. While that’s a drop of 51% from last weekend, the film cost just $15 million to make.
The 24th James Bond film, SPECTRE, came in at No. 6 with $4 million domestically. The $245 million-budgeted film has earned $190.8 million domestically and has reached $820 million worldwide. The previous installment, Skyfall, earned $1.108 billion in 2012.
Adam McKay’s The Big Short, starring Christian Bale, Steve Carell, Ryan Gosling and Brad Pitt, also opened in just eight theaters where it took in $720,000, an impressive average of $90,000 per theater.