Early Friday projections show Lionsgate’s “The Hunger Games: Mockingjay — Part 1″ heading for an opening weekend of about $120 million in the U.S. — significantly lower than recent forecasts and over 20% below the first two “Hunger Games” movies.
However, international box office for the first part of the “Hunger Games” finale is up 5% to 10% above last year’s “Catching Fire” with $33 million in two days.
The U.S. opening day grosses for “Mockingjay,” according to early estimates, will likely reach $51 million, including $17 million from Thursday night showings, followed by about $41 million on Saturday and another $27 million on Sunday.
Should those numbers hold, the U.S. opening weekend for “Mockingjay” would finish far below 2012′s “The Hunger Games” with $152 million and last year’s “The Hunger Games: Catching Fire” with $158 million. Box office trackers had expected “Mockingjay” to finish between $130 million and $150 million in the U.S.
Still, a $120 million U.S. opening for “Mockingjay” would be the biggest 2014 launch by far, easily topping the $100 million mark set by “Transformers: Age of Extinction” in June. And only 15 other films have opened at over $120 million domestically, led by the $207 million for “Marvel’s The Avengers” in 2012.
Friday AM Update: The Hunger Games: Mockingjay—Part 1 opened to an estimated $17 million on Thursday night. While that's easily the biggest Thursday night debut of the year so far, it is significantly lower than Catching Fire's $25 million opening on the same weekend last year.
It's also off from the first Hunger Games movie, which took in $19.7 million from midnight-only showings back in 2012. This is a concerning statistic—with showtimes starting at 8 p.m., Mockingjay absolutely should have earned more than this.
Overall, the $17 million debut ranks 13th all-time for Thursday/midnight launches.
If Mockingjay follows Catching Fire's pattern from here, it will end the weekend with $106 million. That would be a stunning drop; for now, let's assume that fans simply decided to wait to see the movie on Friday or Saturday. Even with that assumption, though, this late night debut essentially rules out a $150 million weekend.
It's similar to HPDH Part 1, it opened with less and ultimately grossed less than the previous title before it, but when Part 2 came out, that ended up grossing the most in the franchise.
It's similar to HPDH Part 1, it opened with less and ultimately grossed less than the previous title before it, but when Part 2 came out, that ended up grossing the most in the franchise.
Same with Breaking Dawn Part 1 (I didn't watch it, just looked up the stats)
I wonder why people aren't here for Part 1 movies?
can't wait
