Weekend Wrap-Up

Mockingjay Tops Post-Thanksgiving Fallout

By John Hamann

December 7, 2014

You people are making me very uncomfortable.

New at BOP:
Share & Save
Digg Button  
Print this column
Interstellar is fifth, and has already seen a wide release overseas, and has already earned the half-billion necessary for Paramount and partners to see a profit. This weekend, Interstellar earned another $8 million and was off 49% compared to the previous weekend. With awards and best of the year lists starting to come out – and little to no sign of Interstellar save for some visual effects mentions – Chris Nolan will have to be happy that moviegoers have come out for his sci-fi epic and content himself with a domestic gross of $158.7 million, and an overseas gross that is approaching $400 million.

Dumb and Dumber To is sixth and joins the rest of the group with a big drop following the long weekend. The Jim Carrey/Jeff Daniels flick earned another $4.2 million this weekend and fell 50% compared to the $8.4 million it earned last weekend. The $40 million laugher has now rung up $78.1 million on the domestic side, and has about $40 million from overseas venues. It does open in a bunch of new territories this weekend, and there are more to come before the end of December. While it opened strong, unless it becomes huge again through its home video release, I don’t see a huge appetite for another one.

Seventh goes to The Theory of Everything, the Stephen Hawking biopic from Focus Features. Focus kept the venue count close to where it was last weekend, adding just 24 theaters this frame. The result was as expected, as Theory earned $2.7 million and declined 47% compared to last weekend. I would expect a larger push for more venues next weekend, as at 826 venues, this one still has room to grow. So far, The Theory of Everything has earned $13.6 million and has yet to open in overseas locations.

Ben Affleck and Gone Girl hang around for another weekend, the film's tenth consecutive in the top ten. This weekend it earned only $1.5 million, dropping 39% compared to last weekend. Gone Girl has now earned $162.9 million domestically, and $335 million worldwide. It opens in Japan next weekend.

Misbegotten afterthought The Pyramid opened this weekend to little fanfare, as Fox chose to roll it out in only 589 venues. That kind of count kneecaps a film like this one, giving it no chance to succeed (not that it had much of a chance anyway). The Pyramid opened to only $1.4 million and will disappear quickly. It had only two positive reviews at RottenTomatoes, and we would have to search far and wide for anyone that has actually seen it.




Advertisement



Birdman is 10th, as even art house hits aren’t immune from the turkey blues. Birdman earned another $1.2 million and fell 39%. The $18 million film has now matched its production budget, earning $18.9 million so far.

Eleventh place goes to St. Vincent, Bill Murray’s successful dramedy. The Weinstein release earned another $1.1 million, and dropped 36% compared to last weekend. It has earned $40.8 million since opening, not bad against a $13 million budget.

Twelfth is Nightcrawler, which gets a new life from Open Road thanks to the mini-major adding 687 venues back into its count. Now out to 1,257 theaters, Nightcrawler earned $1.1 million and was our only film with an "up" percentage, as it moved higher by 27%. Already profitable against its $8.5 million budget, Open Road appears to be positioning it for Oscar attention in the hopes of keeping the kudos coming. So far, it has earned $30 million stateside and $6.3 million from overseas venues.

In limited release this weekend, Reese Witherspoon’s Wild opened at 21 theaters and pulled in $630,000. It had an okay venue average of $30,000. The Imitation Game expanded from four locations to eight and earned $402,000, giving it a second weekend venue average of $50,250.

Overall this weekend, the box office bottomed out, as the top 12 found only $73.4 million, the lowest total since the first weekend of September when the top earned $51.5 million. A year ago, the box office was functioning much better, with the top 12 earning $86.4 million. Next weekend, we are back in business, as Ridley Scott’s Exodus: Gods and Kings opens at 3,300 plus theaters, and Chris Rock’s Top Five also debuts in more of a nationwide release.


Top Weekend Box Office for 12/5/14-12/7/14 (Estimates)
Rank Film Distributor Estimated Gross Weekly Change Running Total
1 Hunger Games: Mockingjay Pt. 1 Lionsgate $21,600,000 - 62% $257,700,000
2 Penguins of Madagascar Fox $11,100,000 - 56% $49,590,500
3 Horrible Bosses 2 WARNER BROS. $8,600,000 - 44% $36,075,000
4 Big Hero 6 Disney $8,130,000 - 57% $177,548,000
5 Interstellar Paramount $8,000,000 - 49% $158,657,000
6 Dumb And Dumber To Universal $4,168,800 - 50% $78,080,535
7 The Theory of Everything Focus Features $2,668,000 - 47% $13,613,000
8 Gone Girl Fox $1,500,000 - 39% $162,861,000
9 The Pyramid Fox $1,350,000 New $1,350,000
10 Birdman FOX SEARCHLIGHT $1,150,000 - 39% $18,919,500
11 St. Vincent $1,085,000 - 36% $40,766,076
12 Nightcrawler Open Road Films $1,075,665 + 27% $30,021,052
  Also Opening/Notables
  Wild FOX SEARCHLIGHT $630,000 New $677,000
  The Imitation Game Weinstein Co. $401,570 - 16% $1,012,769
  Rosewater Open Road Films $175,904 - 49% $2,909,612
  Foxcatcher Sony Classics $574,727 - 44% $2,842,240
  Whiplash Sony Classics $351,474 - 29% $4,415,205
  Fury Sony $870,000 - 44% $83,234,000
Box office data supplied by Exhibitor Relations
Continued:       1       2       3

     


 
 

Need to contact us? E-mail a Box Office Prophet.
Thursday, April 18, 2024
© 2024 Box Office Prophets, a division of One Of Us, Inc.