By Leonard Klady Klady@moviecitynews.com
The Weekend Report
The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1 generated the biggest box office bow (wow) of the year with an estimated $123.2 million salvo. The franchise’s third outing was always expected to be boffo albeit tracking indicated it would not attain the $158 million level of the prior chapter. Nonetheless, some held out hope for a gross close to $150 million.
In light of the anticipated b.o. tsunami, competitors steered clear of the date with even limited, niche and exclusive debuts pared way back. But there was an encouraging $23,500 gross for the offbeat California-shot, Iran-set hipster vampire tale A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night from two playdates.
The session also featured small expansions for The Homesman, Foxcatcher and The Theory of Everything with the latter two titles maintaining hefty screen averages. The Indian diaspora provided a few titles with only the Hindi Happy Ending registering a commercial pulse that was nonetheless faint at $188,000 from 126 screens.
Otherwise: Katniss, Katniss, Katniss.
Weekend revenues generated close to $200 million for a sizable 41% jump from the seven days past. It was nonetheless 14% below 2013 results when the debut of The Hunger Games: Catching Fire launched with $158.1 million.
It’s quibbling to notch the Mockingjay 1 debut as disappointing. Despite the post-Hunger arrival this year of Divergent, The Giver and The Maze Runner, the attrition rate for the vanguard yarn has been negligible and the arrival of the then-unknown Jennifer Lawrence has in short order transformed her into a movie star and Oscar winner.
Just weeks ago the expectation was that the new entry would become 2014’s top-grossing title but it’s now more likely to attain the bridesmaid slot behind Guardians of the Galaxy.
Mockingjay also opened day-and-date in the rest of the world (save China and Japan) with early estimates of slightly more than $150 million that already places it among the top 25 global box office champs of 2014. The UK was the top territory with close to $20 million and such venues as Germany, Mexico, Russia, Australia and France posted 8-figure plus results.
| Weekend (estimates) November 21 – 23, 2014 | |||||
| Title | Distributor | Gross (avg) | % chng | Thtrs | Cume |
| The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Pt 1 | Lionsgate | 123.2 (29,690) | NEW | 4151 | 124.3 |
| Big Hero 6 | BV | 20.1 (5,510) | -42% | 3650 | 135.7 |
| Interstellar | Par | 15.0 (4,400) | -47% | 3415 | 120.6 |
| Dumb and Dumber 2 | Uni | 13.8 (4,330) | -62% | 3188 | 57.5 |
| Gone Girl | Fox | 2.8 (1,730) | -39% | 1609 | 156.8 |
| Beyond the Lights | Relativity | 2.6 (1,480) | -58% | 1766 | 10.1 |
| St. Vincent | Weinstein | 2.3 (1,340) | -40% | 1707 | 36.5 |
| Fury | Sony | 1.9 (1,090) | -51% | 1720 | 79.1 |
| Birdman | Fox Searchlight | 1.8 (2,130) | -25% | 862 | 14.4 |
| The Theory of Everything | Focus | 1.5 (10,570) | 101% | 140 | 2.8 |
| Nightcrawler | Open Road/Elevation | 1.2 (1,060) | -60% | 1102 | 27.1 |
| Ouija | Uni | 3.0 (1,270) | -48% | 1341 | 48.59 |
| John Wick | Lionsgate | 2.3 (1,290) | -45% | 972 | 39.73 |
| Saving Christmas | IDP | .65 (1,590) | -34% | 410 | 1.9 |
| Alexander and the Terrible… Day | BV | .62 (820) | -62% | 754 | 63.3 |
| Rosewater | Open Road/SEF | .54 (1,460) | -53% | 371 | 2 |
| The Judge | WB | .54 (1,070) | -49% | 505 | 45.3 |
| Whiplash | Sony Classics | .49 (1,480) | -33% | 331 | 3.2 |
| Guardians of the Galaxy | BV | .46 (1,430) | 58% | 324 | 331 |
| Foxcatcher | Sony Classics | .46 (19,040) | 69% | 24 | 0.8 |
| The Book of Life | Fox | .40 (910) | -59% | 438 | 47.9 |
| Chaar Sahibzaade | White Hill | .33 (6,530) | -25% | 51 | 1.4 |
| The Maze Runner | Fox | .30 (810) | -53% | 370 | 100.5 |
| The Equalizer | Sony | .28 (1,030) | -41% | 269 | 99.3 |
| The Best of Me | Relativity | .23 (540) | -67% | 432 | 26.2 |
| Weekend Total ($500,000+ Films) | $192.00 | ||||
| % Change (Last Year) | -14% | ||||
| % Change (Last Week) | 41% | ||||
| Also debuting/expanding | |||||
| Happy Ending | Eros | .19 (1,490) | 126 | 0.19 | |
| Citizenfour | Weinstein | .18 (2,090) | 3% | 86 | 1.2 |
| The Homesman | Roadside | .12 (3,710) | 170% | 33 | 0.18 |
| Force Majeure | Magnolia | .10 (1,830) | -6% | 56 | 0.57 |
| Dear White People | Roadside | 92,400 (1,360) | -53% | 68 | 4.1 |
| Edsa Woolworth | ABS | 44,700 (1,940) | -65% | 23 | 0.26 |
| Don’t Go Breaking My Heart 2 | ASIA | 37,600 (3,760) | -61% | 10 | 0.17 |
| Elsa & Fred | Millennium | 34,300 (1,720) | -24% | 20 | 0.2 |
| A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night | Kino | 23,500 (11,750) | 2 | 0.02 | |
| Rowdy Fellow | Movie Mills | 22,900 (520) | 44 | 0.02 | |
| Food Chains | Screen Media | 19,200 (1,200) | 16 | 0.02 | |
| Monk with a Camera | Kino | 9,100 (9,100) | 1 | 0.01 | |
| Happy Valley | Music Box | 5,400 (1,800) | 3 | 0.01 | |
| Little White Lie | Truth Aid | 4,100 (4,100) | 1 | 0.01 | |
| Heartbeat | Mongrel | 2,800 (2,800) | 1 | 0.01 | |
| Domestic Market Share (Jan. 1 – Nov. 20, 2014) | |||||
| Distributor (releases) | Box Office | Market Share | |||
| 20th Century Fox (17) | 1571.1 | 17.30% | |||
| Buena Vista (16) | 1459.1 | 16.10% | |||
| Warner Bros. (22) | 1308.9 | 14.40% | |||
| Sony (21) | 1180.2 | 13.00% | |||
| Universal (18) | 1001.1 | 11.00% | |||
| Paramount (14) | 938.9 | 10.30% | |||
| Lionsgate (22) | 438.8 | 4.80% | |||
| Weinstein (25) | 195.9 | 2.20% | |||
| Relativity (10) | 171.1 | 1.90% | |||
| Open Road (9) | 145.6 | 1.60% | |||
| Fox Searchlight (9) | 116.2 | 1.30% | |||
| FreeStyle (10) | 104.1 | 1.20% | |||
| Focus (11) | 96.6 | 1.10% | |||
| eOne/Seville (29) | 53.5 | 0.60% | |||
| Other * (320) | 291.9 | 3.20% | |||
| 9073 | 100% | ||||
| * none greater than 0.4% | |||||
| Top Global Grossers * (Jan. 1 – Nov. 20, 2014) | |||||
| Title | Distributor | Box Office | |||
| Transformers: Age of Extinction | Par | 1,083,817,908 | |||
| Guardians of the Galaxy | BV | 770,754,950 | |||
| Maleficent | BV | 757,560,968 | |||
| X-Men: Days of Future Past | Fox | 746,224,744 | |||
| Frozen * | BV | 724,322,158 | |||
| Captain America: The Winter Soldier | BV | 713,778,940 | |||
| The Amazing Spider-Man 2 | Sony | 709,012,447 | |||
| Dawn of the Planet of the Apes | Fox | 708,178,313 | |||
| How to Train Your Dragon 2 | Fox | 619,789,291 | |||
| Godzilla | WB; Toho | 523,345,942 | |||
| Rio 2 | Fox | 498,781,117 | |||
| Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles | Par; MGM | 475,722,431 | |||
| The Lego Movie | WB | 472,173,863 | |||
| Lucy | Uni | 460,738,679 | |||
| Edge of Tomorrow | WB | 368,667,083 | |||
| Interstellar | Par | 357,910,013 | |||
| Noah | Par | 362,164,780 | |||
| The Wolf of Wall Street * | Par | 350,418,304 | |||
| The Maze Runner | Fox | 332,022,744 | |||
| 300: Rise of an Empire | WB | 331,624,640 | |||
| 22 Jump Street | Sony | 331,392,898 | |||
| Gone Girl | Fox | 323,082,469 | |||
| The Fault in Our Stars | Fox | 304,248,580 | |||
| Divergent | Lionsgate | 289,044,408 | |||
| The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug * | WB | 277,256,540 | |||
| * does not include 2013 box office | |||||
