Last weekend, Dec. 5-7 2014, was the second worst of 2014 at the box office. There were no new films in nation wide release and those that entered into their second weeks each had some pretty steep, but expected, drops. “Penguins of Madagascar” dropped 57% bringing its grand total to just under $50 million and “Horrible Bosses 2” dropped 45% to bing it to just shy of $36 million. “Mockingjay Part 1” made more than both of those movies combined during that same weekend. It’s now at $258 million domestic with another $302.8 million outside the US.
Next weekend sees “Exodus: Gods and Kings” hit 3,300 theaters and the week after that will see the final “The Hobbit” finally make it into theaters. December stays pretty crowded after that.
| Rank | Title | Weekend Gross | % Change | Total Gross | Week # | ||||||
| 1 | The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1 | $22,026,762 | -61.3% | $258,153,593 | 3 | ||||||
| 2 | Penguins of Madagascar | $10,907,030 | -57.1% | $49,397,566 | 2 | ||||||
| 3 | Horrible Bosses 2 | $8,421,307 | -45.5% | $35,896,073 | 2 | ||||||
| 4 | Big Hero 6 | $8,042,918 | -57.3% | $177,461,157 | 5 | ||||||
| 5 | Interstellar | $7,788,357 | -50.5% | $158,445,319 | 5 | ||||||
A quick note on budgets and dollar figures:
Films making back their budgets is a good sign, but that is just the money to film. It doesn’t include distribution and marketing. Marketing can cost as much as a film. That big Superbowl spot is spendy. So take that into account when judging a films success. Hitting $100 million isn’t the same as it once was.
All dollar amounts in the top 5 come from estimates based on ticket sales unless noted otherwise. Occasionally this article will be published when actual results come out, which is usually late Monday afternoon. For more about this and other ins and outs of movie tracking click here.