Surprise: Mockingjay Boasts Biggest Opening of 2014 with $123 Million
This probably comes as a shock to no one, but the latest Hunger Games movie made a lot of money this weekend.
Last year, Catching Fire boasted a $158 million opening weekend, so $123 million isn’t exactly up to snuff for the franchise, but the movie still topped every other movie of 2014 and happens to be the fifteenth best opening weekend ever (for the US and Canada). Still, Lions Gate Entertainment’s stock fell 5 percent this weekend.
As AP’s Jake Coyle points out, splitting Mockingjay into two movies means that the final Hunger Games movie will most likely annihilate the box office. Annihilate, I say. He wrote:
Dividing the book pushed much of the big drama of “Mockingjay” to the second film, scheduled for release in November 2015. On the same November weekend in 2010, “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1” — which similarly split the series’ last book into two — opened almost identically with $125 million. A year later, the second “Deathly Hallows” film debuted bigger than all previous “Harry Potter” films with $169 million.
“A little perspective is in order here,” said Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst for box office tracker Rentrak. He called the “Mockingjay” results “still an astonishing feat.”
Also, the movie was basically up against Dumb and Dumber To, so there’s a different kind of perspective I guess.
Image via Getty.