Mockingjay – Part 2 tops USA box office

Mockingjay – Part 2, the final Hunger Games film, soared to take US$101 million ($155 million) in its first weekend in USA theatres.

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Meanwhile, previous box office champions proved hard to dislodge on the rest of the list. Just two weekends ago, “Spectre”, which fell to second place with $14.6 million, failed to live up to “Skyfall’s” domestic opening, too. “Night” grossed more than $10 million and “Secret” took in more than $6 million.

Those are obviously low numbers and reviews for both films were not positive.

The comedy will likely have about a month of decent showings, since the next adult comedy movie doesn’t come out until December 16 – Sisters, starring Amy Poehler and Tina Fey. Joined by the rebels of the Districts, family friend Gale Hawthorne (Liam Hemsworth) and fellow Hunger Games veteran Peeta Mellark (Josh Hutchinson), Katniss enters the Capitol hoping to assassinate its leader, President Snow.

The series made up ground overseas, picking up $147 million after debuting in almost everysignificant foreign territory, including China. The movie ranges from typical war movie action sequences of enemies firing at one another to a scene where Katniss and her squad mates are being followed through a dank sewer by frightful creatures called mutts.

However, compared to other films, the Hunger Games: Mockingjay 2 is the big victor.

Even so, “Part 2” scored the fifth highest opening this year on the eve of the holiday season.

In addition, movies continue to gross stratospheric amounts.

“Jurassic World” earned $208 million dollars, “Avengers: Age of Ultron” on the second earned $191 million. The “Games” movies have set box office records in the past.

So the comparatively lower opening weekend gross of the final “Games” installment certainly stands out. Even among the fans of the original novels, the last book has been considered the let-down of the series.

But the film may have been hurt by the long lead-time between movies. Page-to-screen adaptations of The 5th Wave, Fallen and Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children are expected in 2016 but have yet to net the astronomic book sales or crossover appeal of the Twilight, Harry Potter and Hunger Games series.

‘The Peanuts Movie’ finished in third place with a decent 47% decline in attendance.

Check back each week for box office previews and results and the latest movie reviews from 22News.

The star-studded spy thriller – with Daniel Craig as 007, and including Italian beauty Monica Bellucci and Austrian Oscar victor Christoph Waltz as the villain – has raked in $154.1 million in its three weeks in cinemas.