The final instalment in the Hunger Games saga, Mockingjay - Part 2, scored the lowest opening haul of the four-film series at the US box office this weekend, $101m.
Studio Lionsgate pointed out that only 34 movies in history have ever debuted to more than $100m in North America. However, the final episode of the Jennifer Lawrence-led dystopian saga was down 17% on Mockingjay - Part 1’s $121.9m opening last year, and a full 36% on Catching Fire’s $158m bow in 2013.
Critics have been less kind to the two most recent Hunger Games movies, partly as a result of the studio’s decision to split Suzanne Collins’ final novel in two on the big screen. Though the book upon which the two Mockingjay films were based is also considered the weakest of the young adult trilogy.
Mockingjay - Part 2 sees Lawrence’s Katniss Everdeen continue her assault on the Capitol and the evil leader of Panem, President Snow (Donald Sutherland). The Guardian’s Peter Bradshaw said the final episode “retains a tough kind of nihilist energy and inventive pessimism,” adding: “Its bizarre dystopia – something between Orwell’s Airstrip One and Louis XIV’s Versailles – is still watchable.”
Last week’s No 1, the James Bond movie Spectre, dropped one spot to second place, with $14.6m in its third week of release, while animated tale The Peanuts Movie managed $12.8m, also in its third week, in third.
Two new films rounded out the top five, both with relatively disappointing results. Seth Rogen-led festive comedy The Night Before, about a group of friends who embark on an annual Christmas Eve outing, landed in fourth with $10.1m on opening. Director Jonathan Levine’s film, which also stars Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Anthony Mackie, Lizzy Caplan and Michael Shannon, picked up less than half the $20.7m haul managed by Rogen’s apocalyptic 2013 comedy This is the End.
Secret in their Eyes, a remake of the 2009 Argentine Oscar-winner, made fifth place on debut with just $6.6m, the lowest opening for a film starring Julia Roberts on wide release at more than 2000 cinemas. Also starring Chiwetel Ejiofor and Nicole Kidman, director Billy Ray’s movie centres on a team of FBI investigators whose lives are thrown into torment when one of their number (Roberts) discovers that her daughter has been murdered. The initial case goes cold, but a new lead emerges more than a decade later.
There were no other new films in this week’s top 10. However, the Oscar-tipped indie romance Carol, starring Rooney Mara and Cate Blanchett, did well on limited release with the year’s third best location average, $62,032, from four cinemas in New York and LA. Only Steve Jobs and Sicario have performed better in 2015.
North American box office 20-22 November
1. The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 2: $101m - NEW
2. Spectre: $14.6m. Total: $153.7m
3. The Peanuts Movie: $12.8m. Total: $98.9m
4. The Night Before: $10.1m - NEW
5. Secret in Their Eyes: $6.6m - NEW
6. Love the Coopers: $3.9m. Total: $14.9m
7. The Martian: $3.7m. Total: $213m
8. Spotlight: $3.6m. Total: $5.9m
9. The 33: $2.2m. Total: $9.9m
10. Bridge of Spies: $1.9m. Total: $65.2m
