“Hunger Games” tops box office for third time

The movie racked in $18.6 million, arriving to a total of $22.1 million in its three week of release.

The “Rocky” sequel “Creed” was in third place with 15.54 million dollars, which dropped 47.6 percent from last weekend. The blend of horror and comedy was apparently just what people were looking for in a season of family films and Oscar hopefuls. The animated movie dropped a sizable 60 percent, one of the worst for a Pixar film, and could only muster $15.5 million.

This coming week will likely see Mockingjay – Part 2’s reign come to an end, as period nautical drama In the Heart of the Sea opens wide with Chris Hemsworth at the helm along with the wider expansion of Tom Hardy’s Legend. Still, it was enough to hold off the larger than expected $16 million gross of Krampus, and the $15.5 million made by both The Good Dinosaur and Creed.

Directed by Michael Dougherty (Trick ‘r Treat), Krampus stars Adam Scott, Toni Collette and David Koechner and recounts the ancient legend of Krampus, who punishes those who have lost their Christmas spirit. Its domestic 12-day total sits at $65.1 million.

According to Rentrak, which records tickets sales at box offices around the world, the cinematic finale to the “Hunger Games” series topped the charts, raking in US$51 million (RM215 million) over the weekend.

Pixar’s ‘The Good Dinosaur’ finished in fourth place, but took a massive second-week decline. Spectre, in the meantime, and its estimated $5.4 million is still looking wimpy in its domestic run, but the film has long since tripled its costs in worldwide earnings and yet another megahit for the Bond franchise. “The Good Dinosaur” now grossed just 75.9 million dollars in 10 days.

The Hollywood Reporter also listed a few limited film offerings which had their recent releases, including “Youth” and “Macbeth”. The Mother Teresa bio-pic earned $802,000 from 886 locations, giving it a brutally low $905 per-screen average. This also shows how Part 2 continues to lag against Part 1 and begs the question as to whether Part 2 will make it to $300 million.

Though domestic receipts fell sharply from last week’s holiday, they represented an improvement over the prior year.