Final ‘Hunger Games’ movie opens to franchise low

Catching Fire, the second film, went one better with a 158.1 million dollar (£104.3 million) debut in November 2013.

As the concluding movie in the dystopian film franchise, “Mockingjay- Part 2” follows the story of Katniss, who leads a final stand against the Capitol and the tyrannical President Snow (Donald Sutherland). The studio Lionsgate split the third book in the Collins trilogy, “Mockingjay“, into two movies, and Part 1 opened past year to $121.9 million. Lionsgate, however, is not disappointed.

“It’s a great accomplishment”. The overall franchise has grossed over $2 billion worldwide and counting… “It’s a pretty phenomenal result”.

“When a franchise is this popular and this successful in this short a time, expectations run very high”, said Rentrak analyst Paul Dergarabedian.

Only 34 movies in history have opened at over $100 million, including all four in “The Hunger Games” series. Meanwhile, in its second weekend in North America, Spectre fell significantly, managing a mere $14.6 million for a total domestic gross of $153.7 and global gross of $681.4 million. Sony plugged the film into this weekend as counter-programming against Katniss hoping to lure in young men and hopes word-of-mouth will be good enough to take it into the turkey frame.

Two new movies rounded out the top five with The Night Before and the Secret in their Eyes making $10.1 million and $6.6 million respectively. The film’s budget is estimated to be at $160 million. A lavish roller coaster will be created to resemble the movies’ high-speed Capitol trains and there’s a simulator-style ride that will take people on a hovercraft tour of Panem.

According to Entertainment Weekly, total box office gross is down 11 percent from the same week past year when the first “Mockingjay” movie opened. “In the broader box-office ecosystem, you can start to feel the pangs of audience weariness: with the holiday season marching an endless parade of mega-films before us, each successive event feels just a little less event-worthy”, Lopez reports.

The Secret In Their Eyes, a thriller starring Nicole Kidman, Julia Roberts, and Chiwetel Ejiofor, struggled out of the gate, taking in about $6.6 million.

Still, Box Office Mojo notes Mockingjay 2 is the fifth 2015 film to debut with $100 million or more. However, it’s all but inevitable that the new “Star Wars” film will topple “Mockingjay” in mid-December if it can hang on that long.