By Leonard Klady Klady@moviecitynews.com
The Weekend Report
The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2 took a 50% hit but still survived Thanksgiving contenders with an estimated $51.3 million weekend. (Figures reflect a three-day period.) The incoming crowd was right behind with Pixar’s The Good Dinosaur grossing $39 million and Creed, a Rocky continuation, clobbering $29.3 million. A third national release, Victor Frankenstein, fizzled with a $2.3 million tally.
Exclusives saw encouraging results for South Korea’s The Priests and Janis: Little Girl Blue that opened respectively to $20,900 and $22,700 each from two screens. The big noise was the $182,500 launch of transgender drama The Danish Girl at four engagements.The session also saw significant expansions for Spotlight, Brooklyn and Trumbo with all holding their own in the approaching holiday season.
In the niches, Indian imports were led by the Hindi Tamasha with a $1 million box office, with lesser results for Telugu Size Zero and its Tamil version Inji Iduppazhagi grossing $230,000.
Revenues for the weekend surpassed $180 million for a 5% improvement from the immediate prior frame. It was also 12% better than the 2014 turkey trot, when Mockingjay–Part 1 led with $56.9 million with newcomers The Penguins of Madagascar and Horrible Bosses 2 bowing to $25.4 million and $15.5 million.
Pundits had The Good Dinosaur trailing the Mockingjay finale with box office of about $40 million. It proved a family favorite with exit polls identifying the audience as 79% in that category. It also skewed 53% female with 58% of lookies aged 25-years and younger. Good Dinosaur also dipped its toe in the international marketplace in 39 countries for an estimated $29 million. Top performers included the UK with $4.3 million, $3.6 million in Mexico and a Russian B.O. of $2.1 million.
Creed was also in line with odds-makers who pegged it around $30 million. More difficult to ascertain was its lineage… Rocky VII, reboot or a loosely connected relation? The tale of son of Apollo (Creed) seeking out Balboa to train him for the ring managed to mix the old with a fresh perspective that generally got the critical thumbs up. The audience skewed 66% male with 62% aged 25-years and older. The film also opened in a few international venues including Australia but details were unavailable at deadline.
| Weekend (estimates) November 27 – 29, 2015 | |||||
| Title | Distributor | Gross (avg) | % chng | Thtrs | Cume |
| The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2 | Lionsgate | 51.3 (12,290) | -50% | 4175 | 198 |
| The Good Dinosaur | BV | 39.0 (10,390) | NEW | 3749 | 55.3 |
| Creed | WB | 29.3 (8.610) | NEW | 3404 | 41.8 |
| Spectre | Sony | 12.8 (4,360) | -14% | 2940 | 176.1 |
| The Peanuts Movie | Fox | 9.6 (3,110) | -27% | 3089 | 116.7 |
| The Night Before | Sony | 8.2 (2,770) | -17% | 2960 | 24.1 |
| Spotlight | Open Road/eOne | 4.4 (4,940) | 25% | 897 | 12.3 |
| The Secret in Their Eyes | STX/eOne | 4.3 (1,790) | -36% | 2392 | 13.8 |
| Brooklyn | Fox Searchlight | 3.9 (4,580) | 233% | 845 | 7.3 |
| The Martian | Fox | 3.3 (2,310) | -14% | 1420 | 218.6 |
| Love the Coopers | CBS/eOne | 3.0 (1,630) | -27% | 1867 | 20.5 |
| Victor Frankenstein | Fox | 2.3 (830) | NEW | 2797 | 3.4 |
| Trumbo | Bleecker Street | 1.5 (2,500) | 495% | 615 | 2.6 |
| Bridge of Spies | BV | 1.4 (2,190) | -31% | 635 | 67.6 |
| Tamasha | UTV | 1.0 (5,410) | 182 | 1.4 | |
| Goosebumps | Sony | .76 (1,240) | -59% | 614 | 77.7 |
| The 33 | WB | .54 (770) | -77% | 702 | 11.3 |
| Hotel Transylvania | Sony | .33 (1,090) | -59% | 303 | 167.2 |
| Legend | Uni | .28 (7,030) | 223% | 40 | 0.51 |
| Room | A24 | .31 (1,750) | -20% | 177 | 3.4 |
| Pan | WB | .30 (1.030) | -8% | 288 | 34.5 |
| La Guerre des tuques | Seville | .27 (3,750) | -49% | 71 | 1.7 |
| Suffragette | Focus | .25 (1,140) | -53% | 217 | 4.1 |
| Size Zero/Inji Iduppazhagi | PVP | .24 (1,300) | 181 | 0.24 | |
| Carol | Weinstein Co. | .20 (49,500) | -22% | 4 | 0.58 |
| Weekend Total ($500,000+ Films) | $176.60 | ||||
| % Change (Last Year) | 12% | ||||
| % Change (Last Week) | 5% | ||||
| Also debuting/expanding | |||||
| The Danish Girl | Focus | 18 (45,640) | 4 | 0.18 | |
| Our Times | Media Asia | .18 (8,090) | -16% | 22 | 0.62 |
| Mukhtiar Chadha | Eros | .11 ((3,300) | 34 | 0.11 | |
| By the Sea | Uni | 83,600 (590) | -57% | 142 | 0.48 |
| Janis: Little Girl Blue | FilmRise | 22,700 (11,350) | 2 | 0.02 | |
| The Priests | CJ | 20,900 (10,450) | 2 | 0.02 | |
| Floride | Metropole | 16,200 (1,800) | 9 | 0.02 | |
| A Fool | China Lion | 6,400 (3,200) | 2 | 0.1 | |
| Domestic Market Share (January 1 – November 22, 2015) * | |||||
| Distributor (releases) | Box Office | Market Share | |||
| Universal (23) | 2353.5 | 24.60% | |||
| Buena Vista (13) | 1511.1 | 15.80% | |||
| Warner Bros. (28) | 1454.4 | 15.20% | |||
| 20th Century Fox (20) | 1170.5 | 12.20% | |||
| Sony (18) | 866.9 | 9.00% | |||
| Paramount (12) | 586.9 | 6.10% | |||
| Lionsgate (20) | 433 | 4.50% | |||
| Weinstein Co. (18) | 284.9 | 3.00% | |||
| Focus (12) | 118.1 | 1.20% | |||
| Fox Searchlight (9) | 100.2 | 1.10% | |||
| Relativity/Europa (7) | 86 | 0.90% | |||
| Sony Classics (21) | 62.2 | 0.60% | |||
| A24 (9) | 49.2 | 0.50% | |||
| Open Road (7) | 49 | 0.50% | |||
| CBS (2) | 47.9 | 0.50% | |||
| STX (2) | 46.5 | 0.50% | |||
| Other * (352) | 363.3 | 3.80% | |||
| 9583.6 | 100% | ||||
| * none greater than 0.4% | |||||
| Top Domestic Grossers (Jan. 1 – Nov. 24, 2015) * | |||||
| Title | Distributor | Box Office | |||
| Jurrasic World | Uni | 652,269,878 | |||
| Avengers: Age of Ultron | BV | 459,029,868 | |||
| Inside Out | BV | 356,343,385 | |||
| Furious 7 | Uni | 353,125,507 | |||
| American Sniper * | WB | 348,797,073 | |||
| Minions | Uni | 335,632,780 | |||
| The Martian | Fox | 215,345,849 | |||
| Cinderella | BV | 201,151,353 | |||
| Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation | Par | 195,257,225 | |||
| Pitch Perfect 2 | Uni | 184,446,466 | |||
| Ant-Man | BV | 179,957,825 | |||
| Home | Fox | 177,397,510 | |||
| Hotel Transylvania 2 | Sony | 166,816,072 | |||
| Fifty Shades of Grey | Uni | 166,248,790 | |||
| SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water | Par | 163,553,869 | |||
| Spectre | Sony | 163,256,967 | |||
| Straight Outta Compton | Uni | 161,246,861 | |||
| San Andreas | WB | 155,190,832 | |||
| Mad Max: Fury Road | WB | 153,636,354 | |||
| The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2 | Lionsgate | 146,712,341 | |||
| * does not include 2014 box office | |||||
