The first weekend of December is a time of begrudged impulse control, as a gluttonous America atones for the sin of over-consumption (food- and Black Friday-related) by going on an entirely temporary diet. That principle seems to have carried over to the nation’s moviegoing habits: After stuffing themselves on empty cinematic calories last weekend, audiences largely stayed away from the multiplex this weekend, resulting in one of the worst Friday-to-Monday box-office stretches all year. (Only the first weekend of September was more dismal.) Those who did make it out to the movies basically picked at leftovers—though maybe that was because there was nothing new in wide release to choose from, what with the studios insisting we finish our perfectly good, unspoiled November movies before we get any new ones.
That penultimate Hunger Games movie, which is on track to be the second highest-grossing movie of the year by tomorrow, easily took the No. 1 spot, adding another $21.6 million and further exposing the fallacy of thinking of it as anything but a monster box-office smash. According to Box Office Mojo, the film will likely finish in the $330 million range—and with Guardians Of The Galaxy nearing the end of its theatrical run at $332 million, that could be enough for Katniss and company to win the year overall. There’s certainly no Frozen this year to sneak up on the franchise, even though Big Hero 6 has quietly become a pretty big hit, making only a little less ($177.5 million and counting) than its Disney predecessor did in the same number of weeks last year.
As expected, both Penguins Of Madagascar and Horrible Bosses 2 took substantial dips in patronage; both still made enough ($11.1 million and $8.6 million, respectively) to claim the runner-up positions of the weekend. At 589 theaters, hacky horror offering The Pyramid fell just short of the number of venues necessary to be considered a nationwide release. That’s probably for the best, as $1.3 million is a much less sad opening for a “limited” release movie—and just barely enough to put the film in the top 10. Further down the charts, Wild debuted to a solid $630,000 on 21 screens, while Nightcrawler for some reason got brought back into wide release, making another million or so on nearly 900 new theaters. Now that’s a leftover worth reheating.
For more detailed numbers, visit Box Office Mojo.