You can sense a little bit of box office anticipation going on here as we end up with the quiet before the story as the box office has one of its the worst weekends in an age; with it hitting just under $67 million, it hasn’t been this bad since 1998 according to BoxOfficeMojo. The only new film of note that landed this weekend in wide form was In the Heart of the Sea and it did a paltry $11 million, making for another difficult release for director Ron Howard after the critically well received Rush that didn’t do well at the box office. This allowed Mockingjay Part 2 to take the top spot again with $11.3 million, bringing it to almost $250 million domestically – which is still far short of the $408 million the first film made when it debuted.
The lackluster Good Dinosaur film was able to hold onto third place while Creed had a decent continuing weekend with $10 million as well. Beyond that, everything is keeping to low numbers, though it’s worth noting that Krampus fell just 50% to $8 million, but was made for so little that it’s simply doing very well – and will likely have a long life aftermarket every holiday.
This coming weekend sees the debut of Alvin & The Chipmunks: The Road Chip, which is the most anticipated film of 2015, right?
Okay, okay. The Force Awakens nationally, though no screen count has been revealed yet. The previous box office winner for December was $84.6 million with The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey back in 2012. We know this record is going to fall – and easily – but the question remains as to how much. The film is tracking large numbers and Disney has been repeatedly trying to tamp down overspeculation since it can lead to people avoiding the theater. Still, expectations are in the $150 to $200 million range – domestically! – and there has been speculation based on trends and prepurchases that the worldwide opening weekend could hit $650 million. Suffice to say, we’re looking forward to this coming weekend to see the film (the first of many times, we’re sure) and to talk about its performance afterward.
| WEEKEND REVENUE | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| RANK | TITLE | DISTRIBUTOR NAME | REVENUE | # OF LOCATIONS* | LOC AVG | CUME REVENUE |
| 1 | Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2, The | Lionsgate | $11,300,000 | 3,651 | 3,095 | $244,490,956 |
| 2 | In The Heart Of The Sea | Warner Bros. | $11,005,000 | 3,103 | 3,546 | $11,005,000 |
| 3 | Good Dinosaur, The | Disney | $10,497,000 | 3,606 | 2,910 | $89,661,000 |
| 4 | Creed | Warner Bros. | $10,120,000 | 3,502 | 2,889 | $79,321,018 |
| 5 | Krampus | Universal | $8,012,655 | 2,919 | 2,745 | $28,153,985 |
| 6 | Spectre | Sony | $4,000,000 | 2,640 | 1,515 | $190,767,660 |
| 7 | Night Before, The | Sony | $3,900,000 | 2,674 | 1,458 | $38,205,656 |
| 8 | Peanuts Movie, The | 20th Century Fox | $2,650,000 | 2,653 | 998 | $124,955,585 |
| 9 | Spotlight | Open Road | $2,508,853 | 1,089 | 2,303 | $20,302,802 |
| 10 | Brooklyn | Fox Searchlight | $1,975,000 | 947 | 2,085 | $14,330,423 |
| 11 | Martian, The | 20th Century Fox | $1,400,000 | 1,041 | 1,344 | $222,800,035 |
| 12 | Love The Coopers | Lionsgate | $1,350,000 | 1,610 | 838 | $24,636,242 |
