Creed Couldn’t Knock Out Hunger Games

Katniss Everdeen and the folks over at The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2 couldn’t be bested by a trio of new releases over the holiday weekend, and the finale of the blockbuster series once again takes the cake at the box office for the second week in a row!

Third place went to the generally well-received boxing movie “Creed”, a next generation version of the “Rocky” series, whose revenue totaled $42.6 million in its first week in theaters.

For a Pixar film, The Good Dinosaur didn’t do great overseas, bringing in $28.7 million from 39 different territories.

“Dinosaur” pushed its other key competitor, Fox’s animated “Peanuts Movie”, to fifth place with an estimated $13.6 million.

“Part 2” is expected to take the top spot at the North American box-office for the third weekend in a row, followed by last week’s new entrants “The Good Dinosaur” and “Creed”. It’s still running behind Mockingay – Part One’s ten-day domestic total of $225.68 million, and it most likely won’t catch up.

The Good Dinosaur debuted to $56 million from 3,749 locations for the five days, the fourth-best Thanksgiving launch of all time.

“It’s always a good week when we’re putting a Pixar movie into theaters”, said Dave Hollis, Disney’s executive vice president of theatrical sales and distribution. With almost $43 million over the five-day weekend and strong word of mouth, “Creed” is on course to surpass $100 million, which would make it the highest grossing picture in the franchise, when adjusting for inflation, since “Rocky IV” 30 years ago. Pixar’s “The Good Dinosaur” capitalized on school holidays, becoming the de facto choice for families. Michael B. Jordan co-stars with Stallone as Apollo’s son, Adonis. According to Fox News, the film costs $175-200 million to produce.

But the end-of-the-year rankings as they stand now show what we’ve already seen with “Creed”: movies that are rooted in nostalgia but are given enough of a new spin will appeal to many. The Martian is now on the 10th place with $3.3 million and Lionsgate’s “Love the Coopers” ranked 11th at $3.0 million. Brooklyn, despite generating Oscar-worthy buzz, fell short earned $3.8 million over three days. The film’s worldwide total is now at $545.40 million. Back in June, Pixar also released Inside Out, which dominated the box office with a $90.4 million opening, according to the Hollywood Reporter. There are no reviews yet so it’s a bit of a wildcard for Universal, which despite having the biggest year in box office history, hasn’t had a breakout hit since “Straight Outta Compton” in August.