“The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2” A Box-Office Hit On Thanksgiving

Disney’s DIS, -2.98% “The Good Dinosaur” earned $39.2 million in its opening weekend – $55.5 million through the five-day Thanksgiving holiday.

This Thanksgiving ended up looking a lot like past year: a Mockingjay movie taking first place for the second weekend in a row, followed by new releases of an animated feature and a sequel no one really wanted but people went to see anyway.

The Good Dinosaur and Rocky’s reboot Creed played a big part in driving the holiday box-office numbers in North America, even if Good Dinosaur marks a low start for a Pixar title. Charlie Brown and Snoopy have floated in the top three since the film’s November 6 debut, for a domestic gross to date of over $103 million. It earned a three-day debut of $30.1 million and a five-day total of $42.6 million and appeared in 3,284 theaters for the five days. The three-day weekend hold was a verfy solid 49%, better than the 53% Thanksgiving weekend holds for both Hunger Games: Catching Fire and Mockingjay Part 1. Part 1 minted $225.7 million at around the same point of time. Still, “The Good Dinosaur” earned a strong A Cinemascore, and animated tooners for kids movies tend to stick around throughout the holiday season and beyond so presumably Pixar’s dino pic won’t be going extinct anytime soon. That film is a new installment in the series following Sylvester Stallone’s boxer Rocky Balboa, who actually takes a supporting role in this film that centers around the son of his former nemesis Apollo Creed. The picture, based on Suzanne Collins’ novels, has garnered more than $198 million domestically. Sony/MGM’s SPECTRE landed in fourth place with an estimated $12.8 million from 2,940 theaters. If it can hold out for a strong second round next weekend, Creed may end up hitting $100 million before it closes, making it the first Rocky movie to do so since Rocky IV in 1985.

The Secret in their Eyes also was down two to #6 in its second weekend with $4.5 million, off an okay 32%. Starring James McAvoy and Daniel Radcliffe, the sci-fi movie earned approximately $3.4 million from 2,797 theaters and got a C CinemaScore.

The same week that Fox’s The Martian celebrates its ninth and most likely final week in the top 10, Fox Searchlight’s Brooklyn enters jumps three places to finish in the ninth position thanks to expanding from 115 to 845 locations.

Speaking of the specialty division, Focus Feature might still have some awards-season luck yet with “The Danish Girl”.