Browse: Home / Hunger Games Leads Again As Good Dinosaur Does OK And Creed And Danish Girl Turn In Knockout Box Office Performances

Menu

Skip to content
  • Home
  • Who We Are
  • About
  • Privacy
  • Contact Us
  • Login

The-SoluteLogo

A Film Site By Lovers of Film

Menu

Skip to content
  • Features
  • Reviews
  • Long Reviews
  • News
  • Articles and Opinions
  • Other Media
  • The Friday Article Roundup: The Truth is In Here
  • Lunch Links: Schwarzfahrer
  • Websites on the Internet: THE SOLUTE
  • New on DVD and Blu-Ray
  • Movie Gifts Holidays 2024

Hunger Games Leads Again As Good Dinosaur Does OK And Creed And Danish Girl Turn In Knockout Box Office Performances

Posted By NerdInTheBasement on November 29, 2015 in News | 15 Responses

For the third Thanksgiving in a row, a Hunger Games movie led the box office, and though the numbers it turned in were lower than past Katniss entries, it still showed solid stamina at the box office. Gathering up another $51 million, The Hunger Games: Mockingjay: Part Two dropped 50% from its opening weekend, which is slightly smaller than the 53% dips of the last two Hunger Games movies and a solid showing considering this new film was more frontloaded on its opening weekend than past Hunger Games adventures. With Star Wars on the horizon, it’s unlikely Mockingjay holds quite as well as its predecessors over the Christmas holidays, though considering it’s amassed $198 million domestically already, it should be good to go for a final domestic total over $260 million.

Hey look! A new PIXAR movie, the first to debut outside of Summer in 11 years, and the first to premiere over Thanksgiving weekend in 16 years, came around this weekend. This feature, The Good Dinosaur, opened to $39 million, the fourth biggest Thanksgiving opening weekend of all-time behind Frozen, Toy Story 2 and Tangled. Over its first five days its amassed $55.4 million, a solid haul that’s slightly under expectations, but also far far from being a “box office bomb” of sorts.

Why did Arlo and his prehistoric pals fail to hit the box office heights of recent animated Disney Thanksgiving smashes like Tangled and Frozen? A slightly more muted critical reception might have hurt things, as were ads that were lighter on laughs than many of the most successful modern day animated movies. It’s also interesting to note that, two years ago, Frozen, was the first major animated movie in two months. Even last years Big Hero 6 (which didn’t debut over Thanksgiving, but did start its run in November) was the first family movie to gross over $20 million in its opening weekend in just under five months. By comparison, the past 10 weeks have delivered 3 family movies that have opened to over $20 million, 2 of which got over $40 million in their opening weekends.

So what does the road ahead look like for The Good Dinosaur? Well, the good news is that there’s very little major family movie competition over Christmas (Alvin And The Chipmunks: The Road Chip is the only family film opening over the holidays, and that one’s gonna fall waaaay short of its predecessors domestically), but the bad news is fellow Disney title Star Wars: The Force Awakens is gonna suck all of the oxygen out of the marketplace in its fourth weekend of release. There’s a good chance The Good Dinosaur winds up as the lowest grossing PIXAR film domestically, but I’ll be generous and say it ends up just above that for a $170-175 million final domestic haul.

In third was the very impressive Creed, which generated $30.1 million over the three day weekend. That’s the 10th biggest 3-day Thanksgiving opening weekend of all-time, and with an A Cinemascore by its side, as well as glowing reviews, this one has a good shot at lasting through the Christmas box office. With its 5-day haul of $42.5 million, this Ryan Coogler feature can thank its strong box office results to a number of actors; those aforementioned ecstatic reviews, it’s top-notch marketing and the fact that it’s the kind of excellently crafted crowd-pleaser that can always be counted onto generate big box office numbers.

Barring a huge second weekend plummet, Creed should have no problem getting past $100 million, which would make it Michael B. Jordans first movie to hit nine digit numbers at the domestic box office and Sylvester Stallones first film to cross that threshold since The Expendables five years ago.

In fourth place was Spectre, which had a tiny 15% dip over the holiday weekend for a fourth weekend haul of $12.76 million. 007’s newest adventure has now amassed $176.3 million, putting it already above the domestic grosses of Casino Royale and Quantum of Solace. Right behind Spectre in fifth place was fellow November 6, 2015 release The Peanuts Movie, which added an additional $10 million to its domestic haul to this weekend. That’s a 24% drop from last weekend, a definitive sign that Charlie Brown and the gang lost much of their audience to the newest PIXAR adventure. The Peanuts Movie has now grossed $117.1 million.

The Night Before dropped only 18% from last weekend for an $8.1 million second weekend. This ones performing way below typical Seth Rogen vehicles, though at least this is a solid second weekend drop. The Night Before has now grossed $24 million over ten days. Fellow second weekend feature The Secret In Their Eyes had one of the bigger dips of any film in the top 12 this weekend, losing 35% from its opening weekend a gross this frame of $4.3 million. This Billy Ray feature has now grossed a tiny $13.8 million over ten days and will likely vanish from theaters entirely in a week or two.

Eighth and ninth place went to smaller indie films expanding into wide release, with eighth place going to Spotlight, now playing in 897 theaters and adding another $4.4 million to its great current domestic cume of $12.3 million. Brooklyn came in at ninth place with a great $3.7 million haul bringing its domestic gross to $7.1 million. And coming in at tenth place, still sticking around, was The Martian, which managed to nab another $3.2 million, only a 15% dip from last weekend, over the weekend where it was originally scheduled to open. The Martian has now grossed an amazing $218.6 million.

All the way down in 12th place was the record-breaking Victor Frankenstein, which grossed an anemic $2.3 million over the weekend. That’s the worst opening weekend ever for a film opening in over 2500 theaters, and, yeah, this dismal showing isn’t exactly surprising. 20th Century Fox basically buried the movie when it came to marketing, and what they did put out was more confusing than enticing. One notable example; that main poster. Depicting Victor (James McAvoy) and Igor (Daniel Radcliffe) in a heroic pose of sorts. Now, in the film, Igor has his hunchback cured, meaning the main visual signifyer of a character being “Igor” is now gone, meaning audiences now have to decipher both which of the two actors is the titular lead and who the other man on the poster is.

Also; isn’t it kind of ironic, after Victor Frankenstein screenwriter went on his Twitter tirade about original films like American Ultra being unable to find an audience anymore, that his adaptation of Mary Shelleys novel found itself being outgrossed by a wide margin by not one but two original dramas? Meanwhile, Trumbo went into wide release (616 theaters to be precise) to decent results, grabbing up $1.5 million for a $2,490 per theater average. Not great, but solid enough numbers considering it faced intense competition from fellow dramas Brooklyn and Spotlight.

In the world of limited releases this weekend, The Danish Girl debuted in 4 theaters to terrific results. This Tom Hooper effort grossed $197,000 in its opening weekend, for an excellent per theater average of $49,250. Focus Features plans to expand this film into wide release on Christmas Day, and that should pan out given the tremendous numbers its already turning in in limited release. In its second weekend, Carol didn’t add theaters, but it had an incredible 9% dip for a $203,000 weekend and a $50,500 per theater average. Don’t be shocked if this one also goes into wide release over Christmas.

Overall, the top 12 grossed $172 million this weekend, an 12% increase from last year when the first Part of the Mockingjay duology ruled for the second weekend in a row. In terms of Thanksgiving weekends, this sum was decent, being up from Thanksgiving in 2011 and 2014, though way down from past massive Thanksgiving frames from years like 2013.

Posted in News | Tagged Box Office Analysis

About the Author

NerdInTheBasement

NerdInTheBasement (A.K.A. Douglas Laman) is a man of cinema, pure and simple. He loves good music, good food, good friends and the vocals of Idina Menzel. He does movie reviews, news pieces, editorials, occasional TV coverage and is well-known for writing like he’s running out of time. Douglas Laman also has a Patreon, where you can donate to support his crippling movie-watching habit: https://www.patreon.com/DouglasLaman

Related Posts

Toy Story 4 Rules The Box Office Playground Again As Annabelle Comes Home Delivers Conjuring Series Lows And Yesterday Hits A High Note→

The Toys Are Back In Town With Toy Story 4’s $118 Million Bow As Chucky Slices Up An OK Bow And Anna Misses Box Office Mark→

Men in Black: International Falls Short of Its Predecessor, Ditto For Shaft While Late Night Draws Little in the Way of Viewership.→

A Rough Box Office Weekend See’s Secret Life of Pets 2 Becoming First Illumination Box Office Disappointment While Dark Phoenix Is Given The Bird→

  • Comments
  • Popular
  • Most Recent
  • j*****@yahoo.com'
    mr_apollo on Year of the Month: Mon OncleWonderful piece, Sam. It's made…
  • j*****@yahoo.com'
    mr_apollo on Year of the Month: Mon OncleFellow heretic here. I've never…
  • n***********@gmail.com'
    Ruck Cohlchez on Film on the Internet: AN AMERICAN CRIMEI wouldn't have called it…
  • j***********@gmail.com'
    Son of Griff on LIFE ITSELFGlad to hear back from…
  • n*********@gmail.com'
    Jake Gittes on Film on the Internet: AN AMERICAN CRIMEThis is the single most…
  • “The End” of SAVAGES

    38468 views / Posted November 10, 2014
  • The Untalented Mr. Ripley: The Craft of Standup Comedy and the Non-Comedy of TOM MYERS

    30969 views / Posted June 26, 2018
  • What the fuck did I just watch? SPHERE

    30450 views / Posted March 19, 2015
  • Gordon with Mr. Looper

    Attention Must Be Paid: Will Lee

    27687 views / Posted January 7, 2023
  • Scenic Routes: SHOWGIRLS (1995)

    23492 views / Posted November 20, 2014
  • The truth is FAR out there.

    The Friday Article Roundup: The Truth is In Here

    December 6, 2024 / The Ploughman
  • This is a way lower res image than I will be allowed to get away with at the new site.

    Lunch Links: Schwarzfahrer

    December 5, 2024 / The Ploughman
  • Websites on the Internet: THE SOLUTE

    December 4, 2024 / ZoeZ
  • New on DVD and Blu-Ray

    December 3, 2024 / Greta Taylor
  • Movie Gifts Holidays 2024

    December 2, 2024 / The Ploughman

Last Tweets

    ©2014 - 2016 The-Solute | Hosted, Developed and Maintained by Bellingham WP LogoBellinghamWP.com.

    Menu

    • Home
    • Who We Are
    • About
    • Privacy
    • Contact Us
    • Login
    Do NOT follow this link or you will be banned from the site!