OPENINGS: We noted here yesterday that if THE HUNGER GAMES: CATCHING FIRE (Lionsgate) could just hold on as well on its first Saturday as The Hunger Games had, a $160M weekend was within its grasp. That’s exactly what happened, with the same 25% Saturday drop for Catching Fire that Hunger Games had and a $161.1M weekend estimate. However, Lionsgate was awfully aggressive in its estimated Sunday drop of 30% (even better than Hunger Games), so that number may be walked back a bit tomorrow. For the moment, Catching Fire has the #4 US opening of all time, behind only The Avengers, Iron Man 3 and the last Harry Potter, and barely ahead of Dark Knight and Dark Knight Rises. In any case, Catching Fire will stand as the biggest non-summer opening ever. The next question is whether its Thanksgiving Weekend will be more like Breaking Dawn Part 2 (down 69% last year) or Skyfall (down 14%). Even more important from Lionsgate’s point of view, Catching Fire had a huge $146.6M start overseas, already more than half the total Hunger Games $283.2M international return, and with France, Italy and Japan yet to open. A total worldwide take of $800M+ seems likely.
The attempt to counterprogram Catching Fire with DELIVERY MAN (DreamWorks/Disney) failed miserably, as the Vince Vaughn “comedy” ended up with a $8.2M weekend and will vanish from view imminently.
DALLAS BUYERS CLUB (Focus/Universal), now in semi-wide release at 666 theatres, had a decent $4200 average, although that was off the recent pace of 12 Years A Slave, which had a $5800 average even when it hit 1144 theatres.
HOLDOVERS: Both THOR: THE DARK WORLD (Disney) and THE BEST MAN HOLIDAY (Universal) were smashed by Catching Fire, down a respective 61% (to $14.1M) and 58% (to $12.5M). Dark World probably won’t get much past $200M in the US, about 10% ahead of the first Thor, but it already has $381M overseas, more than 40% higher than the entire international box office for Thor. Best Man should hit $75M in the US.
Somewhat surprisingly, the older-skewing LAST VEGAS (CBS) was also hurt by Catching Fire‘s arrival, and after a 24% drop last weekend, it plunged 48% this time around to $4.8M, on its way to a $65M total. FREE BIRDS (Relativity) enjoyed its last pre-Disney weekend with $5.3M, down just 35% from last weekend.
BAD GRANDPA (Paramount), with a $3.5M weekend, and GRAVITY (Warners), with $3.3M, will likely hit respective milestones of $100M and $250M over the Thanksgiving holiday, and CAPTAIN PHILLIPS (Sony) reached $100M in the US this weekend after adding another $1.8M to its total, an extremely successful run for a movie that wasn’t a sure thing.
12 YEARS A SLAVE (Fox Searchlight) took a 39% hit this weekend to $2.8M, with a $1900 per-theatre average, and will now face the challenge of holding its position through the month of December, with many new high-quality adult-skewing titles dead ahead.
LIMITED RELEASE: FROZEN (Disney) handed itself a $238K “average” at one (studio-owned) theatre with inflated ticket prices. Even with all that, it ranked below 6 other Disney cartoons that had tried similar gambits. In more conventional release at 4 NY/LA houses, PHILOMENA (Weinstein) started solidly with a $33K average.
There were lots of expansions this weekend. THE BOOK THIEF (20th), now at 70 theatres, had an OK $8600 average and will take its shot of going wide next weekend. NEBRASKA (Paramount) widened to 28 theatres with a $12.5K average. BLUE IS THE WARMEST COLOR (IFC) hit 138 theatres with a $1400 average that’s a bit better than it sounds, considering the running time and ratings restrictions. THE ARMSTRONG LIE (Sony Pictures Classics) almost doubled its run to 37 theatres with a $1200 average.
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