By Leonard Klady Klady@moviecitynews.com
The Weekend Report
It was a rewrite for the record books weekend as The Hunger Games: Catching Fire set a new benchmark for the Thanksgiving holiday with an estimated $75.2 million gross (figures reflect 3-day period).
The frame’s top newcomer, the animated Frozen, also had reason to crow. Its $66.7 million debut ranks as the biggest bow for a ‘toon and its company’s top non-live action launch. The other national debutantes were, however, not the belles of the ball. Actioner Homefront struggled to $6.8 million and slotted sixth in the lineup and two notches down the adaptation of legit favorite Black Nativity went in the red with $3.9 million. The limited wide Oldboy, adapted from the South Korean cult favorite, also looked grim with an $840,000 box office.
Exclusives were led by an $82,500 box office for Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom at four sites. Also encouraging was the $20,100 opening for the indie The Punk Singer on two screens.
In the niches the new Hindi actioner Bullett Raja was disappointing with $147,000 as was Telugu comedy, Venkatadri Express, with a gross of $37,200 at 21 venues.
The session also featured significant expansions of Philomena and The Book Thief that generated OK results of $3.5 million and $4.9 million, respectively. There was also an excellent harvest for Nebraska that added 74 playdates and marked a $740,000 journey.
Overall revenues generated close to $215 million ($310 million for the 5-day portion), which marked a 7% decline from the immediate prior weekend. It was a slim 1% improvement from Thanksgiving 2012 when The Twilight Saga finale grossed $35.5 million and the top newcomers were Rise of the Guardians ($23.8 million) and Life of Pi ($22.5 million).
Frozen melted some recent icy returns for family fair with impressive numbers but just not quite sufficient to vanquish archer Everdeen. Its opening crowd was 81% families according to studio exit polling. It was also 57% female and overall 58% of opening crowds were 58% 25-years and younger.
Next weekend traditionally is among the lowest grossing sessions in any calendar year and 2013 should conform to that trend with but a single new wide release (Out of the Furnace). It will be followed by a flurry of new releases and strategic expansion as the majors balance the sublime, ridiculous and Oscar-worthy.
| Weekend (estimates) November 29 – December 1, 2013 | |||||
| Title | Distributor | Gross (average) | % change * | Theaters | Cume |
| The Hunger Games: Catching Fire | Lionsgate | 75.2 (18,060) | -52% | 4163 | 297.7 |
| Frozen | BV | 66.7 (17,820) | NEW | 3742 | 93.1 |
| Thor: The Dark World | BV | 11.2 (3,400) | -21% | 3286 | 186.8 |
| The Best Man Holiday | Uni | 8.5 (4,950) | -51% | 1712 | 63.4 |
| Delivery Man | BV | 6.9 (2,260) | -13% | 3036 | 19.4 |
| Homefront | Open Road/VVS | 6.8 (2,630) | NEW | 2572 | 9.6 |
| The Book Thief | Fox | 4.9 (3,950) | 701% | 1234 | 7.9 |
| Black Nativity | Fox Searchlight | 3.9 (2,570) | NEW | 1516 | 5 |
| Philomena | Weinstein Co, | 3.5 (4,240) | 2665% | 835 | 4.5 |
| Last Vegas | CBS | 2.7 (1,470) | -38% | 1854 | 58.7 |
| Dallas Buyers Club | Focus/Remstar | 2.6 (3,750) | -3% | 696 | 10.3 |
| Gravity | WB | 2.6 (2,550) | -19% | 1016 | 249.7 |
| 12 Years a Slave | Fox Searchlight | 2.3 (1,970) | -19% | 1165 | 33.1 |
| Free Birds | Relativity | 1.8 (790) | -66% | 2287 | 53.2 |
| Bad Grandpa | Par | 1.8 (1,190) | -48% | 1503 | 98.8 |
| Ender’s Game | Lionsgate | 1.3 (1,510) | -36% | 843 | 59.5 |
| Captain Phillips | Sony | 1.2 (1,460) | -35% | 807 | 102.8 |
| Oldboy | FilmDistrict | .84 (1,440) | NEW | 583 | 1.2 |
| Nebraska | Par | .74 (7,250) | 127% | 102 | 1.5 |
| The Christmas Candle | Echolight | .42 (1,160) | -50% | 361 | 1.7 |
| Cloudy with a Sense of Meatballs 2 | Sony | .37 (530) | -57% | 707 | 115 |
| About Time | Uni | .36 (1,100) | -71% | 331 | 14.7 |
| Despicable Me 2 | Uni | .35 (1,310) | 4% | 271 | 366.9 |
| All is Lost | Roadside Attractions | .20 (1,340) | -44% | 151 | 5.4 |
| Ram-leela | Eros | .19 (2,010) | -60% | 94 | 2.6 |
| Weekend Total ($500,000+ Films) | $205.90 | ||||
| % Change (Last Year) | 1% | ||||
| % Change (Last Week) | -7% | ||||
| Also debuting/expanding | |||||
| Bullett Raja | FIP | .15 (1,220) | NEW | 121 | 0.15 |
| Blue is the Warmest Color (Adele) | Metropole/IFC | .14 (1,390) | -33% | 98 | 2.1 |
| The Great Beauty | Janus | .13 (6,690) | 143% | 19 | 0.25 |
| Mandella: Long Walk to Freedom | Weinstein Co, | 82,500 (20,620) | 4 | 0.08 | |
| Kill Your Darlings | Sony Classics | 69,400 (940) | -31% | 74 | 0.76 |
| Venkatadri Express | AZIndia | 37,200 (1,770) | 21 | 0.04 | |
| The Armstrong Lie | Sony Classics | 29,300 (950) | -32% | 31 | 0.19 |
| The Punk Singer | IFC | 20,100 (10,050) | 2 | 0.02 | |
| Violette | Metropole | 9,400 (1,180) | 8 | 0.01 | |
| 11 A.M. | CJ Entertainment | 8,400 (8,400) | 1 | 0.01 | |
| Cousin Jules | Cinema Guild | 3,900 (3,900) | 1 | 0.01 | |
| Domestic Market Share (Jan. 1 – Nov. 24, 2013) | |||||
| Distributor (releases) | Box Office (millions) | Market Share | |||
| Warner Bros. (21) | 1623.8 | 16.90% | |||
| Universal (17) | 1370.5 | 14.20% | |||
| Buena Vista (14) | 1347.5 | 14.00% | |||
| Sony (18) | 1060.1 | 11.00% | |||
| 20th Century Fox (16) | 989.1 | 10.30% | |||
| Paramount (14) | 824.4 | 8.60% | |||
| Lionsgate (26) | 783.2 | 8.10% | |||
| Weinstein Co. (24) | 475.7 | 4.90% | |||
| Relativity (8) | 221.2 | 2.30% | |||
| FilmDistrict (8) | 201.6 | 2.10% | |||
| Open Road (6) | 115.8 | 1.20% | |||
| Fox Searchlight (10) | 98.6 | 1.00% | |||
| Focus (9) | 91.4 | 0.95% | |||
| CBS (4) | 74.1 | 0.75% | |||
| Sony Classics (17) | 68.8 | 0.70% | |||
| eOne/Seville (27) | 59.6 | 0.60% | |||
| Other * (312) | 232.1 | 2.40% | |||
| 9637.5 | 100% | ||||
| * none greater than 0.45% | |||||
| Top Global Grossers (Jan. 1 – Nov. 28, 2013) | |||||
| Title | Distributor | Box Office | |||
| Iron Man 3 | BV | 1,214,790,498 | |||
| Despicable Me 2 | Uni | 916,980,174 | |||
| Fast & Furious 6 | Uni | 788,109,425 | |||
| Monsters University | BV | 744,055,947 | |||
| Man of Steel | WB | 663,863,028 | |||
| Gravity | WB | 586,134,118 | |||
| Thor: The Dark World | BV | 558,170,787 | |||
| World War Z | Par | 540,229,757 | |||
| The Croods | Fox | 517,148,263 | |||
| Oz the Great and Powerful | BV | 494,038,163 | |||
| Star Trek Into Darkness | Par | 467,388,403 | |||
| The Wolverine | Fox | 416,641,188 | |||
| Pacific Rim | WB | 415,727,134 | |||
| G.I. Joe: Retaliation | Par | 374,141,049 | |||
| The Hunger Games: Catching Fire | Lionsgate | 373,911,216 | |||
| The Hangover Part III | WB | 360,880,112 | |||
| Django Unchained * | Weinstein/Sony | 356,247,618 | |||
| Now You See Me | Lionsgate | 355,447,610 | |||
| The Smurfs 2 | Sony | 347,515,628 | |||
| The Conjuring | WB | 315,569,706 | |||
| A Good Day to Die Hard | Fox | 305,391,077 | |||
| The Great Gatsby | WB | 302,806,488 | |||
| Les Miserables * | Uni | 301,287,664 | |||
| The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey * | WB | 288,252,146 | |||
| Oblivion | Uni | 286,697,768 | |||
| * does not include 2012 box office | |||||
