The 2014 Thanksgiving box office won’t set any new records, but the complete domination of Mockingjay – Part 1 will at least prove that there’s a lot of life left in The Hunger Games franchise. After opening more than 20% below Catching Fire last weekend, the penultimate chapter in the saga of Katniss Everdeen had no trouble staying ahead of Thanksgiving’s new releases: The Penguins of Madagascar and Horrible Bosses 2. Both opened on Wednesday, though the two films combined didn't come close to Mockingjay – Part 1’s $49.7 million estimate for the first three days of the long holiday frame. As expected, Katniss cleaned up on Black Friday with an estimated $24.1 million, or a drop of 56% from the film’s opening one week ago.
Full story after the jump.
Mockingjay – Part 1 should ring up another $80 million between Wednesday and Sunday, topping the five-day Thanksgiving hauls of both Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1and The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 2. Mockingjay will still trail Catching Fire (not to mention Frozen) in terms of all-time Thanksgiving records, though it still has a chance to claim the third-highest holiday ever, ahead of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone.
This year’s new releases got off to a slow start. The Penguins of Madagascar, a spin-off from DreamWorks Animation’s wildly successful Madagascar franchise, opened with an estimated $6.2 million on Wednesday and $3.9 million on Thanksgiving day. After claiming a reported $10.5 million yesterday, Penguins is expected to remain in second place this weekend with just over $26 million, or $36 million for the five-day frame.
Thanksgiving is not known for hosting many R-rated comedies, but Warner Bros. is bravely bucking that trend with Horrible Bosses 2 this year. Back in the summer of 2011, Horrible Bosses was a sleeper hit: opening to $28.3 million on its way to a $117 million domestic total. The sequel took in just $7.3 million for Wednesday and Thursday combined, and came in below holdovers Big Hero 6 and Interstellar on day one of the three-day holiday weekend. On this notoriously family-friendly frame, the comedy is expected to bring in less than $24 million for its first five days.
We’ll have complete box office details tomorrow, including the expansion of The Theory of Everything and the platform debut of The Imitation Game.
Title |
Friday |
Total |
|
1. |
Mockingjay – Part 1 |
$24,100,000 |
$192.7 |
2. |
Penguins of Madagascar |
$10,500,000 |
$20.7 |
3. |
Big Hero 6 |
$7,742,000 |
$156.1 |
4. |
Interstellar |
$6,600,000 |
$137.9 |
5. |
Horrible Bosses 2 |
$6,200,000 |
$13.5 |