“The Hunger Games: Mockingjay- Part 1” is pouring it on and has taken the suspense out of the Thanksgiving weekend box office race, rolling up another $24.1 million Friday.
Last Thanksgiving, “Catching Fire” exploded for a $31.5 million Friday on its way to a record $110 million holiday weekend. “Mockingjay isn’t going to come close to that, but Lionsgate’s Jennifer Lawrence epic is dominating and should come in north of $80 million for the five days. It’s playing in more than 85 markets around the world, and just crossed $400 million in global grosses.
Still to be determined is to what extent the weekend’s two wide openers – DreamWorks Animation’s “Penguins of Madagascar” and New Line’s “Horrible Bosses 2” — can clean up the leftovers.
The PG-rated “Penguins” took in $10.5 million Friday for second place, and is looking at roughly $36 million for the five days, on the low end of expectations for distributor Fox. It received an “A-” CinemaScore, and that could help bring out the family crowd on Saturday and Sunday. The spinoff from the “Madagascar” series has a $132 million production budget.
It appears “Big Hero 6” is siphoning off some of the “Penguins” crowd. The Disney Animation family film took in $7.7 million Friday and is heading $26 million over the long weekend, its fourth. On that pace, its domestic total by Sunday will be nearly $170 million.
The R-rated “Horrible Bosses” sequel was projected to finish in the $35 million range over the long weekend, but after a $6.1 million Friday it’s more likely to wind up at around $23 million.
Its production budget was around $40 million so it won’t be a disaster, but the original film opened to $28 million in just three days in July of 2011, so it has to be a letdown for Warner Bros. The reviews for “Horrible Bossses 2” — it’s at 36 percent positive on Rotten Tomatoes — can’t be helping.
Jason Bateman, Charlie Day, Jason Sudeikis, Jennifer Aniston, Jamie Foxx and Kevin Spacey return in “Horrible Bosses 2,” which is directed by Sean Anders, and are joined by Christoph Waltz and Chris Pine.
It was running fifth on Friday, behind “Interstellar,” which brought in $6.6 million. Christopher Nolan’s space epic is heading for $22 million over the five days, which will up its domestic total to roughly $148 million.
Focus Features’ Stephen Hawking biopic “The Theory of Everything” brought in $1.9 million Friday and is heading for more than $6 million over the long weekend. The Eddie Redmayne-Felcity Jones drama was in seventh Friday, behind “Dumb and Dumber To.”
Universal’s Jim Carrey-Jeff Daniels comedy is looking at roughly $12 million for the five days, which would up its domestic total to $72 million after three weeks.
“Gone Girl,” “St. Vincent” and “Birdman” rounded out the top ten. The overall box office is running roughly 22 percent behind last year’s comparable weekend, when “Catching Fire” and “Frozen” broke records.