Weekend Movies: Gonna Fly Now

Over the Thanksgiving holiday, ‘The Hunger Games’ claimed the top spot at the box office for a second consecutive week while Pixar’s new family flick and the ‘Rocky’ spin-off opened strongly. Too bad the same can’t be said for the record-setting low of the latest retelling of Mary Shelley’s ‘Frankenstein’.

The Hunger Games: Mockingjay, Part 2‘ marks the first entry in the series to not fall more than 50% in attendance during its second week. The fourth and final installment to the franchise grossed $51.6 million over the three-day weekend and $75.7 million over the five-day period. After ten days, the film has earned $198.3 million domestically and $242.4 million overseas, for a $440.7 million worldwide total. Although down from the previous ‘Hunger Games’ movies, ‘Part 2’ is a major box office success nonetheless.

Of the weekend’s three new wide releases, the best-performing was Disney/Pixar’s ‘The Good Dinosaur‘. The animated prehistoric Western marks the lowest Pixar opening since the first ‘Toy Story‘ ($29.1 million in 1995), but the Wednesday debut played a part in that. Over the three-day weekend, the film earned $39.1 million; but over the five-day total, it earned $55.5 million. The Wednesday/Thursday numbers were huge, so the five-day numbers better exemplify the movie’s expected performance. From 92 international markets, ‘The Good Dinosaur’ brought in another $28.7 million. With many more markets to go, that international numbers are set to climb.

The ‘Rocky’ spin-off ‘Creed‘ debuted in the #3 spot with a franchise-high $30.1 million over the three-day weekend and $42.6 million over the five days. With great critical reviews and word-of-mouth, the movie is expected to have long legs.

Although ‘Spectre‘ hasn’t performed as well as ‘Skyfall‘, it continues to see success week-after-week. Over its fourth week, it slipped a mere 15%. The three-day weekend resulted in $12.8 million and the five-day weekend yielded $18.1 million. The film’s domestic total now sits at $176 million, while the overseas totals are at $573.5 million, giving it $749.5 million worldwide.

Despite competition from ‘The Good Dinosaur’, ‘The Peanuts Movie‘ had a strong holdover and rounded out the Top 5. Falling only 26% week-over-week, the movie collected another $9.7 million over the three-day weekend and $13.6 million over the five day. Its domestic total now sits at $116.7 million.

Opening in the #12 spot and taking the cake as the worst domestic debut for picture on more than 2,500 screens was ‘Victor Frankenstein‘. Over the three-day weekend, it raised $2.3 million (an $840 per-screen average). Over the five days, it made $3.4 million ($1,228 per-screen). Ouch.

In limited release, the awards contender ‘The Danish Girl‘ opened at four locations with $185,000, for a very strong $46,250 per-screen average. Distributor Focus Features is expected to expand the film’s release rather quickly.

3-Day Top 10:

1. ‘The Hunger Games: Mockingjay, Part 2’ (Lionsgate) – $51,600,000

2. ‘The Good Dinosaur’ (Buena Vista) – $39,192,000

3. ‘Creed’ (Warner Bros.) – $30,120,000

4. ‘Spectre’ (Sony) – $12,800,000

5. ‘The Peanuts Movie’ (Fox) – $9,700,000

6. ‘The Night Before’ (Sony) – $8,200,000

7. ‘The Secret in their Eyes’ (STX) – $4,502,000

8. ‘Spotlight’ (Open Road) – $4,495,000

9. ‘Brooklyn’ (Fox Searchlight) – $3,832,000

10. ‘The Martian’ (Fox) – $3,300,000

5-Day Top 10:

1. ‘The Hunger Games: Mockingjay, Part 2’ (Lionsgate) – $75,750,000

2. ‘The Good Dinosaur’ (Buena Vista) – $55,565,000

3. ‘Creed’ (Warner Bros.) – $42,600,000

4. ‘Spectre’ (Sony) – $18,155,000

5. ‘The Peanuts Movie’ (Fox) – $13,600,000

6. ‘The Night Before’ (Sony) – $11,545,000

7. ‘The Secret in their Eyes’ (STX) – $5,973,310

8. ‘Spotlight’ (Open Road) – $5,726,159

9. ‘Brooklyn’ (Fox Searchlight) – $4,850,000

10. ‘The Martian’ (Fox) – $4,550,000

17 comments

      • William Henley

        They are small markets. Surprised it pulled in as much as it did

        Country
        (click to view weekend breakdown) Dist. Release
        Date Opening
        Wknd % of
        Total Total Gross / As Of
        FOREIGN TOTAL – 11/27/15 $28,700,000 100% $28,700,000 11/29/15

        Argentina Disney 11/26/15 $2,131,056 100% $2,131,058 11/29/15
        Austria Disney 11/26/15 $152,850 94.2% $162,344 11/29/15
        Belgium Disney 11/25/15 $317,785 100% $317,785 11/29/15
        Bolivia Disney 11/26/15 $143,333 100% $143,333 11/29/15
        Bulgaria Forum Films 11/27/15 $80,408 100% $80,408 11/29/15
        Chile Disney 11/26/15 $477,359 100% $477,359 11/29/15
        Croatia Disney 11/26/15 $27,435 100% $27,435 11/29/15
        France Disney 11/25/15 $3,256,590 100% $3,256,590 11/29/15
        Germany Disney 11/26/15 $1,297,642 100% $1,297,642 11/29/15
        Israel Disney 11/26/15 $173,067 100% $173,067 11/29/15
        Italy – 11/25/15 $2,081,961 94.7% $2,199,222 11/29/15
        Malaysia Disney 11/26/15 $737,656 100% $737,656 11/29/15
        Netherlands Disney 11/26/15 $353,125 85.5% $412,911 11/29/15
        Portugal Disney 11/26/15 $274,985 100% $274,985 11/29/15
        Singapore Disney 11/26/15 $767,740 100% $767,740 11/29/15
        Switzerland (French-speaking) Disney 11/25/15 $169,113 89.4% $189,186 11/29/15
        Switzerland (German-speaking) Disney 11/26/15 $178,217 100% $178,217 11/29/15
        Thailand Disney 11/26/15 $346,827 100% $346,827 11/29/15
        Vietnam CJ Ent. 11/25/15 $408,805 75.6% $540,567 11/29/15

          • William Henley

            One of the things that really has surprised me with looking at market breakdown over the years is that the percentage of movie goers in many countries is smaller than the US. Like Germany has 80 million people, Italy, 60 million, Belgium has 11 million to the US’s 318 million. But Germany’s numbers are not 1/4 of the US’s and Belgium is not 1/30th of the US. I can only assume it has to do with culture – more people go to theaters in the US. I seriously doubt it has to do with the conversion rate – the Euro and dollar are ALMOST 1:1 right now, and prices throughout most of the EU is consistant with prices in the US.

          • Correct, I only see a maximum of 10 movies in theatres each year (sometimes less, e.g. 2 movies in 2008). But also correct: ticket prices are lower over here. Which results in less box office. I remember seeing ‘Raider of the Lost Ark’ in New York (Josh scored me tix!) at $18 per ticket. In Belgium, a film ticket costs between $8 and $11.

          • William Henley

            @Julian – $8-$12 is consistant with most cities in the US. Ticket prices in my city range from $1 (yes, one dollar) -$20 depending on the theater, and if its an older theater, or 3D or large screen, if they serve dinner or not, etc. The theater I usually go to with my friends is $10, the one I usually go to by myself is $3.75. You really cannot judge the rest of the US for what you pay in New York – it would be like judging all of Europe based on prices in London or Paris.

            @Trond – Considering that only a handful of movies are released per year by countries other than the US / India / Japan, the numbers still don’t add up. But my experience from living in Europe for a while is that Europeans don’t watch as much television as the US, and only go to the movies a couple of times a year at most. And then, large European cities may only have a handful of theaters, and smaller cities have fewer (Salzburg has two Cineplexes, which have just opened in the past couple of years – the other theaters show either independant movies, are single screen theaters, or also have live performances).

            I do see in German-speaking countries that a new, 2015 version of Die Trapp Familie opened on November 12, and a new remake of Heidi also opened November 12, but I could not find box office numbers for either. However, both movies are probably competing for the same audience, and opened the same weekend, so I am sure the numbers are going to be small compared to if the movies opened a few weeks apart

          • William Henley

            http://www.dw.com/en/sound-of-music-remake-gets-new-twist-but-keeps-the-kitsch/a-18822902

            From the article

            This remake will probably not be as successful as the original version. In the 1950s, moviegoers in Germany were yearning for entertainment after the war. This new movie was filmed in the style of a German evening soap – directly in English. The film apparently aims to conquer an international audience – but it can hardly fulfill the modern expectations it has developed over the last 60 years.
            The film “The Trapp Family – A Life of Music” directed by Ben Verbong, starring Matthew Macfayden, Eliza Bennett, Yvonne Catterfeld, Cornelius Obonya, and Rosemary Harris is released on November 12 in Germany. A worldwide release is expected for the Christmas holidays.

          • William Henley

            I’m sorry, I got the release dates confused – Heidi opens NEXT weekend. I saw 11.12.2015 and my mind went to American instead of European dates

          • A new ‘Sound of Music’? That takes balls to try and better a veritable classic. By the way, young Germans hardly know the original 1964 movie. I spoke to several 20-somethings (in 2008, while studying abroad) and none of them had even heard of the movie. Weird, to say the least, because it’s a Christmas staple in some countries. Poland has ‘Home Alone’, America has ‘It’s A Wonderful Life’, Sweden has ‘Donald Duck steals the Chip ‘n Dale’s nuts’ and Belgium has ‘The Sound of Music’.

          • EM

            This sounds like Fritz the Cat with a hot tub:

            Sweden has ‘Donald Duck steals the Chip ‘n Dale’s nuts’

          • William Henley

            🙂 I found it interesting that Deutsche Welles called it “Sound of Music” remake. It’s called “Die Trapp Familie”, so I would expect it is more a remake of the 1950s movies of the same name (the kids actually have the names from Die Trapp Familie instead of from Sound of Music)

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