![Weekend Box Office Report: ‘In the Heart of the Sea’ Flounders in the Wake of ‘Mockingjay’](http://townsquare.media/site/442/files/2015/11/hots-trailer-pic.jpg?w=630&h=420&zc=1&s=0&a=t&q=89&w=980&q=75)
Weekend Box Office Report: ‘In the Heart of the Sea’ Flounders in the Wake of ‘Mockingjay’
While many suspected that In the Heart of the Sea would perform well in its opening weekend at the box office, Ron Howard’s seafaring epic delivered incredibly underwhelming numbers, while The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2 continued its reign for the fourth week in a row. That’s all going to change next weekend when Star Wars: The Force Awakens arrives and completely demolishes the competition — if you can even call it “competition.”
Film | Weekend | Per Screen | ||
1 | The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2 | $11,300,000 (-40.1%) | $3,095 | $244,490,956 |
2 | In the Heart of the Sea | $11,005,000 (-%) | $3,547 | $11,005,000 |
3 | The Good Dinosaur | $10,497,000 (-31.5%) | $2,911 | $89,660,791 |
4 | Creed | $10,120,000 (-32.5%) | $2,890 | $79,321,018 |
5 | Krampus | $8,010,000 (-50,8%) | $2,744 | $28,151,330 |
6 | Spectre | $4,000,000 (-27.6%) | $1,515 | $190,767,660 |
7 | The Night Before | $3,900,000 (-22.5%) | $1,458 | $38,205,656 |
8 | The Peanuts Movie | $2,650,000 (-25.8%) | $999 | $124,955,585 |
9 | Spotlight | $2,508,853 (-10.4%) | $2,304 | $20,302,802 |
10 | Brooklyn | $1,975,000 (-19.0%) | $2,086 | $14,330,423 |
Katniss Everdeen was in the top spot for the fourth weekend in a row with $11.3 million, though she took a sizable 40 percent drop — that will become even more sizable next weekend with the arrival of Star Wars, which is expected to break a record or two.
Ron Howard’s latest drama has grown-up appeal, but it apparently wasn’t appealing enough to lure audiences out to see In the Heart of the Sea. The film reportedly cost around $100 million to make, but with an $11 million opening weekend it’s not looking like Warner Bros. is going to make that whale-sized budget back anytime soon, unless In the Heart of the Sea performs very well overseas — and it totally could since 3D is much more popular across the ocean.
That brings us to The Good Dinosaur, which stumbled another 31.5 percent with $10.4 million, bringing its total gross to $89.6 million. Those aren’t atrocious numbers, but it’s still the lowest-performing Pixar film to date. And speaking of performance expectations, Krampus continued to surprise us all by doing very, very well for a niche genre film. The holiday horror film from Trick ’r Treat director Michael Dougherty dropped about 50 percent from its opening weekend, collecting another $8 million — though a 50 percent drop is fairly typical for a horror film’s second weekend.
Creed and Spectre continued to do well, collecting $10.1 and $4 million, respectively, with the former showing some serious legs as exceedingly positive word of mouth inspires more people to check out the latest Rocky sequel.
The Night Before is holding steady in the top 10 as people seek out something light and comedic. The Seth Rogen and Joseph Gordon-Levitt Christmas comedy picked up another $3.9 million, bringing its total gross to $38.2 million. It’s not quite a sleeper hit, but it’s doing just fine.
Rounding out the top 10 are two of this season’s awards contenders: ensemble journalism drama Spotlight, which dropped only 10 percent and took in another $2.5 million for a total gross of about $20.3 million — not too shabby for an adult-oriented drama, and all the awards talk has certainly kept this one going. Brooklyn’s continued presence on the top 10 is a pleasant surprise for a rather pleasant film, earning another $1.9 million for a total of $14.3 million. Perhaps more surprising is how much buzz the Saoirse Ronan immigrant drama has generated, given that the little film is quite subdued and simplistic.
Next week brings Star Wars (and Sisters, if you’re looking for something else; you could see both), which will put an end to the Mockingjay’s reign. It’ll definitely be interesting to see how the rest of the top 10 fares in comparison to The Force Awakens.
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