Hunger Games wins Thanksgiving box office ahead of Pixar and Creed

Mockingjay- Part 2, the last installment in The Hunger Games’ franchise, is still a bit behind Part 1, which devoured $82.7 million last Thanksgiving, but with another $62 million in worldwide sales, the highest foreign sales of the week, Part 2 now sits at $242.4 million internationally and $440.7 million globally.

In at number two was Pixar’s The Good Dinosaur, which debuted to $39.2 million over three days and $55.6 million over five.

The money earned by The Good Dinosaur gives Disney nine of the ten biggest five-day Thanksgiving movie openings ever, but despite its success, The Good Dinosaur’s release marks only the second time a Pixar feature film didn’t open as number one in the United States box office.

Creed finds legendary boxer Rocky Balboa – played by Sylvester Stallone – coaching the illegitimate son (Michael B. Jordan) of his former nemesis Apollo Creed.

“Part 2” remained on top of the Christmas movie season box office by taking in $50 million over the long Thanksgiving holiday weekend. Part 1 minted $225.7 million at around the same point of time.

“The Good Dinosaur” producer Denise Ream had earlier said in interviews that movies like “Inside Out” and “The Good Dinosaur” represent the new generation of Pixar/Disney films movie watchers had shown eagerness to see on the big screen. Pixar’s “The Good Dinosaur” capitalized on school holidays, becoming the de facto choice for families. Look for the final Katniss flick to break $200M on Monday and finish its North American run with about $300M.

While Pixar disappointed a bit, Creed overperformed nicely for its studio for a very strong start.

And in a year with some pretty massive box office numbers, “Hunger Games” had the fifth largest domestic opening. The ensemble drama about the Boston Globe’s coverage of the Massachusetts Catholic sex abuse scandal expanded to 897 theaters and brought in $4.5 million to hold onto the #8 position for a second week.

Spike Lee’s Amazon Studios film, “Chi-Raq”, is about inner-city violence in Chicago.

The movie “Victor Frankenstein” with James McAvoy and Daniel Radcliffe couldn’t scare up a crowd over the weekend, with the film opening with over $2 million, below even October’s science fiction release “The Martian“.

“The Night Before” by Sony also listed an $8.2 million, landing on the sixth spot, whereas “Secret in Their Eyes” garnered $4.5 million during the weekend. Opening Friday, Danish Girl debuted to $181,000 from four theaters in NY and Los Angeles for a solid location average of $45,221. It’s expected to end the holiday weekend with about $29 million at the box office.