During a dismal weekend at the box office, ‘The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part Two‘ retained the #1 position, basically because someone had to. But generating only $11.3 million, it was just the top earner out of a bunch poor performers. It perhaps should have been expected. ‘Star Wars: The Force Awakens‘ opens in just days and maybe everyone is saving up their energy for that.
At any rate, this is only the second ‘Hunger Games’ movie to score the #1 spot for four weeks straight, since the first one.
Most of the rest of the Top Five are repeats from last weekend, with one big exception.
Here are the numbers:
- The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part Two (Lionsgate) – $11.3M
- In The Heart Of The Sea (Warner Brothers) – $11M
- The Good Dinosaur (Disney) – $10.5M
- Creed (Warner Brothers) – $10.1M
- Krampus (Universal) – $8M
Yes, the huge flop of the week is ‘In The Heart Of The Sea’ directed by Ron Howard and starring Chris Hemsworth. The movie cost a reported $100 million to film, not including marketing (including a reported $29.3M on TV ads). This marks the second Howard/Hemsworth flop after ‘Rush’.
One source stated bluntly:
“It’s a very old fashioned movie and one that doesn’t connect with Chris Hemsworth’s audience. It’s a bad match of material and filmmaker… obviously, people didn’t want this.”
As one executive puts it,”Critics hate it.”
The $100M budget makes sense for a tentpole summer blockbuster that appeals to that highly sought 18-49 demographic, but half the audience for ‘In The Heart…’ were over 50 and most were men. Not the audience a studio wisely dumps $100M into a movie for.
With this soft opening, this looks to be the fourth big loss for Warner Brothers this year, following ‘Jupiter Ascending’, ‘The Man From U.N.C.L.E.’ and ‘Pan’.
Here’s a preview of next week’s chart:
#1 Star Wars!
But check back anyway, for the breakdown.
Source: Deadline
