Box Office Weekend: Mockingjay Only Good Part of a Bad Weekend

The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1 is certainly having fun laughing at the competition; as it picked up a comparatively paltry estimated $21.6 million in its third week of release (and consequently, third week as box office champ), it is very likely to become, by next weekend, the second highest grossing domestic release of the year. Ironically, it presides over the second worst-earning weekend of the year. The best of the rest is Penguins of Madagascar; though tearing up overseas, on the domestic front the estimated $11.1 million it made looks pathetic compared to its $132 million price tag, despite decent reviews. While it may not end up a box office flop, Horrible Bosses 2 will likely fall well short of its surprise breakout predecessor as its estimated $8.6 million is only going to help it break even, not break records.

Big Hero 6 is scoring pretty well with an estimated $8.1 million adding some padding to a mild profit on a $165 million budget, while Interstellar, with an estimated $8 million, still needs those international dollars to make it profitable (of which it has plenty of, with a $593.1 million worldwide total). Dumb and Dumber To, with an estimated $4.2 million, is still not revealing whether it was a hit or miss, but unless it cost well over $100 million there is a chance it did better than any sequel to a 20-year-old movie had any right to. The Theory of Everything, on the other hand, is relying more on potential Oscar buzz than dollars at the moment to build its reputation, as its estimated $2.7 million brings it to a $13.6 million worldwide total. However, it has worthy competition from a big box office winner, Gone Girl, whose estimated $1.5 million adds to an impressive $162.9 million total.

Finally, two opposite ends of the spectrum dominate the bottom of the list. Birdman, the artistic and critically acclaimed film finally broke even, an estimated $1.2 million enough to surpass the low $18 million budget. However, even for a found footage movie, ninth-place finisher The Pyramid probably has a lot of ground to make up. With critical slams left and right, the estimated opening take of $1.4 million does not sound like a good start for a film that will not say what it cost to make.

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Seth Paul

When not failing to write novels and screenplays, box-office guru Seth writes humorous comedy tracks for films under the name "The One Man Band" that can be found at Rifftrax.com. Although, he has recently succeeded in writing the novella "Jack Alan and the Case of the Not-Exactly Rocket Scientists," available as an eBook on Amazon. He is also the English voice of Zak in "Zak McKracken: Between Time and Space."

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