By Leonard Klady Klady@moviecitynews.com
The Weekend Report
The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2 sealed the hat trick atop weekend movie going with an estimated $18.5 million. Christmas-themed horror Krampus slotted second with a better than anticipated $16 million debut. The first December weekend is traditionally one of the slowest of the calendar and 2015 was no exception with most films dropping by half. Still, early estimates could well make it the best-grossing in history for this particular three-day.
The session also saw a limited launch for the Mother Teresa bio The Letters with more prayer than hope at $712,000. Considerably better was the maiden theatrical effort of Amazon Studios, Spike Lee’s modernized Lysistrata, Chi-Raq, with a $1.2 million gross at 305 venues.
In the niches Indian imports were soft with the Telugu Shankarabaranam grossing $40,500 and the Hindi Judge Singh LLB trailing with $26,300. The Filipino A Second Chance scored a potent $513,000 while the Chinese Fall in Love Like a Star had a decent opener of $133,000. Brit A Royal Night Out set on V-E Day stumbled with $101,000.
Exclusive freshmen saw award contender titles strongest including the Cannes premiered Youth with $78,800 from four screens, the Bard’s Macbeth (aka The Scottish play) grossing $66,300 at five venues and the Hitchcock/Truffaut doc with $28,700 from four playdates.
Overall business for the frame looks to be just shy of $100 million for a 47% decline from seven days prior. It was also a 28% improvement from 2014 when the initial Hunger Games: Mockingjay led with $22 million.
Expectations for Krampus were in the low teens that suggested a fourth place finish in the lineup. It wound up the weekend bridesmaid with second weekend biz for last weekend debs Creed and The Last Dinosaur a modicum less potent than initial projections. The slightly raffish seasonal horror tale saw an even split between the sexes with 51% of the audience aged 21-years and younger per studio exit demos. It also bowed in 24 foreign markets with an estimated $3.3 million. The character apparently is of Austrian origin … like Beethoven.
Getting a jump on its domestic debut the whaling saga In the Heart of the Sea launched in 38 international markets on Thursday. Opening day estimate was a ship-shape $2.2 million.
| Weekend (estimates) December 4 – 6, 2015 | |||||
| Title | Distributor | Gross (avg) | % chng | Thtrs | Cume |
| The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2 | Lionsgate | 18.5 (4,540) | -64% | 4086 | 227 |
| Krampus | Uni | 16.0 (5,500) | NEW | 2902 | 16 |
| Creed | WB | 15.2 (4,440) | -49% | 3424 | 64.8 |
| The Good Dinosaur | BV | 15.1 (4,040) | -61% | 3749 | 75.6 |
| Spectre | Sony | 5.4 (1,910) | -58% | 2840 | 184.5 |
| The Night Before | Sony | 4.9 (1,760) | -41% | 2794 | 32 |
| The Peanuts Movie | Fox | 3.5 (1,210) | -63% | 2917 | 121.4 |
| Spotlight | Open Road/eOne | 2.9 (2,970) | -34% | 980 | 16.6 |
| Brooklyn | Fox Searchlight/Mongrel | 2.5 (2,730) | -37% | 906 | 11.3 |
| The Secret in Their Eyes | STX/eOne | 1.9 (880) | -57% | 2147 | 17.2 |
| The Martian | Fox | 1.6 (1,390) | -51% | 1140 | 220.8 |
| Love the Coopers | CBS/eOne | 1.5 (900) | -52% | 1639 | 22.7 |
| Chi-Raq | Roadside | 1.2 (3,840) | NEW | 305 | 1.2 |
| Trumbo | Bleecker Street | 1.0 (1,490) | -39% | 660 | 4.2 |
| The Letters | FreeStyle | .71 (800) | NEW | 886 | 0.71 |
| Bridge of Spies | BV | .70 (1,300) | -49% | 536 | 68.6 |
| Victor Frankenstein | Fox | .68 (240) | -72% | 2797 | 5 |
| A Second Chance | ABS | .51 (6,410) | NEW | 80 | 0.51 |
| Tamasha | UTV | .34 (2,110) | -67% | 160 | 2 |
| Legend | Uni | .26 (4,250) | -13% | 61 | 0.9 |
| Goosebumps | Sony | .25 (580) | -66% | 433 | 78 |
| La Guerre des tuques | Seville | .21 (3,250) | -29% | 65 | 2 |
| Room | A24 | .20 (1,140) | -38% | 175 | 3.8 |
| Weekend Total ($500,000+ Films) | $93.80 | ||||
| % Change (Last Year) | 28% | ||||
| % Change (Last Week) | -47% | ||||
| Also debuting/expanding | |||||
| Suffragette | Focus | .15 (770) | -44% | 193 | 4.3 |
| Carol | Weinstein Co. | .14 (36,020) | -27% | 4 | 0.81 |
| Fall in Love Like a Star | China Lion | .13 (3,700) | 36 | 0.13 | |
| The Danish Girl | Focus | .10 (26.050) | -44% | 4 | 0.35 |
| A Royal Night Out | Atlas/eOne | .10 (600) | 168 | 0.1 | |
| Youth | Fox Searchlight | 78,800 (19,700) | 4 | 0.08 | |
| Our Times | Media Asia | 77,800 (4,580) | -54% | 17 | 0.75 |
| Macbeth | Weinstein Co. | 66,300 (13,260) | 5 | 0.07 | |
| Janis: Little Girl Blue | FilmRise | 58,300 (2,430) | 167% | 24 | 0.09 |
| The Priests | CJ | 49,600 (3,820) | 117% | 13 | 0.08 |
| Christmas Eve | KEB | 47,800 (1,230) | 39 | 0.05 | |
| Shankarabaranam | SkyHigh | 40,500 (490) | 82 | 0.04 | |
| Hitchcock/Truffaut | Cohen Media | 28,700 (7,180) | 4 | 0.03 | |
| Judge Singh LLB | Viva | 26,300 (1,050) | 25 | 0.03 | |
| She Remembers, He Forgets | Media Asia | 12,200 (1,020) | 12 | 0.01 | |
| Life | Cinedigm | 7,100 (470) | 15 | 0.01 | |
| Night Owls | Orion | 4,900 (610) | 8 | 0.01 | |
| The World of Kanako | Drafthouse | 4,600 (660) | 7 | 0.01 | |
| MI-5 | Saban | 4,100 (410) | 10 | 0.01 | |
| The Wannabees | Orion | 3,900 (300) | 13 | 0.01 | |
| Domestic Market Share (January 1 – December 3, 2015) * | |||||
| Distributor (releases) | Box Office | Market Share | |||
| Universal (23) | 2355.1 | 23.70% | |||
| Buena Vista (14) | 1575.3 | 15.90% | |||
| Warner Bros. (29) | 1506.6 | 15.20% | |||
| 20th Century Fox (21) | 1199.9 | 12.10% | |||
| Sony (18) | 911.7 | 9.20% | |||
| Paramount (12) | 586.9 | 5.90% | |||
| Lionsgate (20) | 539.4 | 5.40% | |||
| Weinstein Co. (18) | 285.5 | 2.90% | |||
| Focus (13) | 119.9 | 1.20% | |||
| Fox Searchlight (9) | 106.7 | 1.10% | |||
| Relativity/Europa (7) | 86 | 0.90% | |||
| Sony Classics (21) | 62.4 | 0.60% | |||
| Open Road (7) | 55.9 | 0.55% | |||
| STX (2) | 54.7 | 0.55% | |||
| CBS (2) | 53.6 | 0.55% | |||
| A24 (9) | 49.7 | 0.50% | |||
| Other * (359) | 372.7 | 3.75% | |||
| 9922 | 100% | ||||
| * none greater than 0.4% | |||||
| Top Limited Releases (Jan. 1 – Dec. 3, 2015) * | |||||
| Title | Distributor | Box Office | |||
| Mr. Holmes | Roadside Attractions | 17,737,636 | |||
| Spotlight | Open Road/eOne | 13,705,697 | |||
| Love & Mercy | Roadside Attract/eOne | 12,556,192 | |||
| Baahubali | Blue Sky | 9,329,136 | |||
| Un Gallo con Muchos Huevos | Lionsgate | 9,080,818 | |||
| Brooklyn | Searchlight/Mongrel | 8,780,023 | |||
| Amy | A24/Mongrel | 8,399,491 | |||
| Dragon Ball Z: Resurrection F | FUNimation | 8,369,893 | |||
| Bajrangi Bhaijaan | Eros | 8,185,833 | |||
| While We’re Young | A24/Elevation | 7,590,951 | |||
| Whiplash * | Sony Classics | 7,543,077 | |||
| I’ll See You in My Dreams | Bleecker St/Elevation | 7,449,681 | |||
| Inherent Vice * | WB | 7,025,247 | |||
| Me and Earl and the Dying Girl | Fox Searchlight | 6,758,416 | |||
| Danny Collins | Bleecker Street/Elevation | 5,649,253 | |||
| Foxcatcher * | Sony Classics | 5,399,596 | |||
| 90 Minutes in Heaven | IDP | 4,842,699 | |||
| True Story | Fox Searchlight | 4,719,695 | |||
| Prem Ratan Dhan Payo | Fox Intl | 4,364,639 | |||
| The Water Diviner | WB/eOne | 4,209,762 | |||
| * does not include 2014 box office | |||||
Actually, Beethoven is of German origin (born in Bonn). Although he did die in Vienna.
There’s an old joke that states that Austrians would have the world believe that Beethoven was Austrian and Hitler was German…