The odds were once again in ‘The Hunger Games: Mockingjay”s favor, as the YA adaptation held firm to the #1 spot for the third week in a row, the first time that has happened since ‘Straight Outta Compton’ threepeated back in August.  (‘The Martian’ took #1 four out of five weeks, but not consecutively.)  It was a relatively uneventful week, with the only major wide release being the Christmas horror-comedy ‘Krampus’ which exceeded expectation to land with $16 million and the #2 spot.  Garnering excellent reviews and word-of-mouth, ‘Krampus’ edged out second week champs ‘Creed’ and ‘The Good Dinosaur’.

‘Creed’ and ‘The Good Dinosaur’ were neck and neck and come Monday, when the final numbers are released, ‘The Good Dinosaur’ may make a sudden surge ahead, but as of this writing, ‘Creed’ had managed to outperform it, scoring $15.54M to ‘Dinosaur”s $15.51.  ‘Creed’ already holds the distinction of having the highest ever opening for a ‘Rocky’ film and has been generating great buzz. ‘Dinosaur’ on the other hand dropped a precarious 60% in its second week.  This is the first time Disney/Pixar has released two films in the same year and ‘The Good Dinosaur’ is definitely falling well short of this summer’s ‘Inside Out’.

Here are the official numbers:

  1. The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part Two (Lionsgate) – $18.6M
  2. Krampus (Universal)- $16M
  3. Creed (Warner Brothers)- $15.5M
  4. The Good Dinosaur (Disney)- $15.5
  5. Spectre (Sony)- $5.4

The buzz on ‘Krampus’ has been incredible with fans already declaring it a new holiday tradition and comparing it to another unlikely Christmas favorite ‘Gremlins’.  It’s the first Christmas-themed film this year to strike a major cord with audiences who turned their backs on dysfunctional family comedy ‘Love The Coopers’ and mature raunchy comedy ‘The Night Before’, the latter of which is still hanging in fairly well at #6 on the charts.

Next week belongs to awards season bait as the majority of new films opening are serious dramas including “Legend’ and ‘The Big Short’ neither of which is likely to give the Top Five (or even Ten) a run for their money. The movie with the best chances of box off success is the Chris Hemsworth historical action drama ‘In the Heart of the Sea’, built around the inspiration for the classic novel ‘Moby Dick’.  Though it looks exciting and is garnering critical love, it may seem to serious to attract a huge mainstream audience.

Check back next week for the results of the last major box office weekend before the release of one of this year’s most anticipated films, the Tina Fey and Amy Pohler comedy ‘Sisters’… er, I mean ‘Star Wars: The Force Awakens’.  But, ‘Sisters’ IS opening too, God love ’em.

Source: Entertainment Weekly