With In the Heart of the Sea sinking at the North American box office, The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2 remained defiant at the top of the charts for a fourth consecutive weekend.
Katniss, Peeta, Haymitch and the rest of the gang pulled in another $11.3 million, according to estimates. That brings the domestic total to nearly a quarter of a billion dollars. Despite the impressive figures, Mockingjay – Part 2 is still the lowest earner of the franchise compared to the other films’ performances in the same time frame.
Being the only major new release should have given In the Heart of the Sea [read our review] an easy ride, however, Ron Howard’s action adventure failed to capture audience attention. Though it took second place, the weak debut of $11 million makes this one of the worst openings for the award-winning director.
It seems the pairing of Howard and Chris Hemsworth is not lucrative. Their previous effort, the Formula One drama Rush, was critically acclaimed but fizzled in the cinemas. In the Heart of the Sea received mixed reviews and is now unlikely to retain much traction when Star Wars: The Force Awakens and comedy Sisters come out in a few days.
The rest of the top 10 was made up of entirely familiar titles, including The Good Dinosaur, Creed, Krampus, Spectre and The Peanuts Movie. The financial crisis-inspired The Big Short (read our review) did well in limited release. After picking up a raft of Screen Actors Guild and Golden Globe nominations, the film raked in $720,000 from just eight theatres.