Weekend Wrap-Up: Catching Fire Burns Bright, But Not Quite as Bright as Predicted
November 25, 2013
The Hunger Games: Catching Fire easily won first place at the box office this past weekend and it even broke the record for biggest opening weekend in November. Even so, its opening seems a little disappointing, because some analysts were predicting an opening of more than $180 million. The overall box office was still huge at $226 million. This was nearly $100 million or 80% more than last weekend. This was also higher than the same weekend last year by 9%. Unfortunately, 2013 is still behind 2012 by 1.4% at $9.28 billion to $9.41 billion.
The Hunger Games: Catching Fire opened with $158.07 million during it debut weekend, which is higher than The Hunger Games's opening weekend of $152.54 million. On the other hand, this is lower than a lot of people were predicting, which might not be a big issue. By this time next week, we will know if this means it won't match its predecessor. Fortunately, this weekend is the Thanksgiving long weekend, so it should have a really strong hold. Additionally, its reviews are amazing, which should also help its legs. On the downside, it is a sequel and sequels rarely have as long legs as the original film has. Perhaps the holidays will help this one become an exception to the rule, but it might be tough.
Thor: The Dark World slipped to second place with $14.20 million over the weekend for a total of $167.92 million after two. It is technically no longer on pace to reach $200 million, but that's before you take into account Thanksgiving day long weekend.
The Best Man Holiday fell harder than anticipated, down 59% to $12.49 million over the weekend for a total of $50.36 million after ten days of release. This is already more than the original made in total and likely enough to cover its entire production budget. Odds are it won't perform well internationally, but it should break even early in the film's home market run.
The second new release of the weekend was Delivery Man which missed the low end of expectations with just $7.94 million during it opening weekend. Combine this opening with weak reviews and this film will likely not last long in theaters.
Free Birds and Last Vegas were not as close as expected with the former topping the latter $5.36 million to $4.36 million. The former has $48.66 million and if it can do well over Thanksgiving day long weekend, it will rise to the level of a midlevel hit. It will still need help breaking even, as its running tally of $48.66 million is still below its production budget of $55 million. Last Vegas, on the other hand, has already nearly doubled its production budget of $28 million with a running tally of $53.88 million. Even with terrible international numbers, it will break even early in its home market run.
One final note, Captain Phillips became the 28th film released in 2013 to reach the century mark at the box office. It did so during the 44th day of release.
Filed under: Weekend Estimates, Free Birds, Thor: The Dark World, The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, Captain Phillips, Last Vegas, Delivery Man, The Best Man Holiday