The worst November weekend since 1998 also proved to be a bad one for the delayed release of Ron Howard’s latest whale of a tale.
With ‘Star Wars: The Force Awakens’ taking the stage this week, ‘In the Heart of the Sea’ only had one weekend to draw an audience before being forgotten. Warner Bros. bumped the film’s original March 2015 opening for supposed Oscar appeal, but not even awards hungry moviegoers took the bait. Four-week-old ‘The Hunger Games: Mockingjay, Part 2‘ topped the newcomer with its slightest week-over-week decline yet (40%). As Lionsgate is rumored to be shopping a ‘Hunger Games’ prequel series, the latest entry grossed another $11.3 million and now sits with a $244.4 million domestic total and $320.1 million in international revenue.
‘In the Heart of the Sea‘ came close to overtaking ‘The Hunger Games’, but couldn’t close the deal. From 3,103 locations, the survival/monster tale debuted to $11 million and an underwhelming $3,547 per-screen average. After one week on international screens, the high seas adventure picture has earned $39.4 million. The worldwide $50.4 million start signals that this ship is sinking – and the opening of ‘Star Wars’ will certainly to deliver a heavy blow this coming weekend.
Pixar’s ‘The Good Dinosaur‘ took a big hit in its second week, but did all right over its third week. Only falling 31% week-over-week, the prehistoric kids’ movie added $10.4 million to its run, giving it a domestic total of $89.6 million. Even if it falls another 30% over this coming week, it better not be outdone by the upcoming ridiculous ‘Chipmunks’ sequel.
Also three weeks in, ‘Creed‘ retained its #4 ranking by falling just 32%. Word-of-mouth and highly positive critical reviews gave it another $10.1 million and bumped its domestic total up to $79.3 million.
Rounding out the Top 5 was last week’s unexpectedly successful Christmas horror flick ‘Krampus‘. The PG-13 picture dropped 51% in attendance, which actually isn’t too bad for the genre. After adding another $8 million, ‘Krampus’ has now grossed $28.1 million domestically. With another $8.8 million in international ticket sales, the $36.9 million worldwide ten-day total isn’t too bad for the little $15 million picture.
Although known for directing absurd (and hilarious) comedies, Adam McKay’s drama ‘The Big Short‘ saw one of the most successful limited openings of the year. The star-studded picture earned $720,000 from eight locations and locked in a huge $90,000 per-screen average. Paramount set the nationwide expansion for the week of Christmas, so we’ll see how it performs to a much broader audience then.
Debut numbers for Jared Hess’ new comedy ‘Don Verdean’ have yet to be released.
Top 10:
1. ‘The Hunger Games: Mockingjay, Part 2’ (Lionsgate) – $11,300,000
2. ‘In the Heart of the Sea’ (Warner Bros.) – $11,005,000
3. ‘The Good Dinosaur’ (Buena Vista) – $10,497,000
4. ‘Creed’ (Warner Bros.) – $10,120,000
5. ‘Krampus’ (Universal) – $8,010,000
6. ‘Spectre’ (Sony) – $4,000,000
7. ‘The Night Before’ (Sony) – $3,900,000
8. ‘The Peanuts Movie’ (Fox) – $2,650,000
9. ‘Spotlight’ (Open Road) – $2,508,853
10. ‘Brooklyn’ (Fox Searchlight) – $1,975,000
