Box Office Report: The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1 Wins Quiet December Weekend

In third place with a decent post-Thanksgiving hold was Horrible Bosses 2, which dropped a milder 44% to earn $8.6 million. That decent-sized descent is the only good thing to post about the film’s theatrical performance, though. With just $36 million in 12 days, the comedy sequel is performing much more poorly than its predecessor. (In comparison, Horrible Bosses dropped 37% to earn $17.8 million in its sophomore weekend, and also faced the final Harry Potter film’s then record-breaking opening.) A total of just above $50 million – less than half of the original film – seems like a good bet.

Due to sustained word-of-mouth and solid IMAX grosses, Interstellar finished in fifth place with $8 million, a 49% tumble from last weekend. While it has not reached the box office heights of Christopher Nolan’s past blockbusters, it still was a solid performer this season. With $158.7 million so far, the film could still make it to the $175 million mark, although that will depend a lot on how high Exodus: Gods and Kings and The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies do once they start taking IMAX auditoriums and the attention of action-loving moviegoers.

As for the week’s sole opener, The Pyramid, the results were weak. Dumped into theaters without much marketing or awareness, the Egypt-set found footage horror film finished the weekend in ninth place, with $1.4 million from 589 cinemas. With another film about Egypt coming out so soon (also from 20th Century Fox) that is expected to top the box office next weekend, do not expect The Pyramid to stay in theaters for much longer.

With the awards race heating up, many Best Picture contenders had good openings, holds and expansions this weekend. The Theory of Everything dropped 47% but had the second best per-screen average in the Top 10 (after Mockingjay – Part 1), and earned another $2.7 million. That biopic had $13.6 million in the bank so far. Both Gone Girl and Birdman posted the smallest drops in the Top 10 (39%) to take eighth and tenth place, respectively. The David Fincher thriller has earned $162.9 million, while the Michael Keaton backstage comedy has taken in $18.9 million so far.

The news was especially good for The Imitation Game, which finished its second weekend with $402,000 from just eight theaters. With more than $1 million from its platform release, expect a good awards run as the film opens more widely through December. Meanwhile, the Reese Witherspoon drama Wild had a strong opening, taking in $630,000 from 21 cinemas for a strong $30,000 average. That film is also set to expand throughout the month. It will likely do better than Witherspoon’s October disappointment The Good Lie, which limped to $2.6 million earlier this fall.

Here are the numbers for the Top 10 films at the North American box office for the weekend of December 5 through 7, 2014:

1. The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1 – $21.6 million ($257.7 million total)
2. The Penguins of Madagascar – $11.1 million ($49.6 million total)
3. Horrible Bosses 2 – $8.6 million ($36.1 million total)
4. Big Hero 6 – $8.1 million ($177.5 million total)
5. Interstellar – $8 million ($158.7 million total)
6. Dumb and Dumber To – $4.2 million ($78.1 million total)
7. The Theory of Everything – $2.7 million ($13.6 million total)
8. Gone Girl – $1.5 million ($162.9 million total)
9. The Pyramid – $1.4 million (NEW)
10. Birdman – $1.2 million ($18.9 million total)

NOTE: These numbers are weekend estimates based on Friday and Saturday’s estimated takes. Actual numbers for the three-day weekend are reported on Monday afternoon.