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Welcome to this week's Movie Math where a situation has developed that Snow would probably
find pretty darn hilarious. Now, on the glass half full side, Mockingjay Part 2 did deliver
the fifth biggest opening of the year - not the fourth the franchise had hoped for but
still, it cleared the century mark. And while Katniss didn't set the world on fire as she
did with Mockingjay Part 1, which debuted with two hundred and seventy-four point nine
million last year, she definitely singed it with a global debut of two hundred and forty-seven
million. And despite smaller crowds, those still faithful to the Mockingjay definitely
made a night of it - for instance, BTT viewer Bryan Yong and his wife took time during their
honeymoon in Japan to see the film, and look how awesome popcorn is in Japan! That's half
butter, half caramel popcorn! Thanks for the pic, Bryan! And just FYI, we'll definitely
be doing a full on ticket montage here on Movie Math for Star Wars The Force Awakens!
But on the glass half empty side, debuts for The Hunger Games movies have been depreciating,
significantly now, which is certainly not good news for Lionsgate which just announced
that Hunger Games theme park set to open in Atlanta in 2019. This lowball debut also comes
at a terrible time for Jennifer Lawrence, who has been campaigning aggressively for
a bigger salary on par with her male co-stars. And at first, it seemed like Lawrence could
go the distance as she has what no other actresses have right now - save maybe Scarlett Johansson
- and that's box office clout. But with Mockingjay Part 2 dismal debut, this calls into question
just how many tickets she really does sell, here or with the X-Men films. Plus with her
upcoming Passengers, will she be the draw, or will it actually be up to Chris Pratt to
do the heavy lifting? Some are blaming Mockingjay Part 2's lackluster performance on the decision
to split the final Hunger Games book into two movies - yet Harry Potter and the Deathly
Hallows Part 2 not only opened bigger than Part 1, but was the biggest debut for the
eight movie franchise. Likewise, Twilight Breaking Dawn Part 2 also opened bigger than
Part 1, but it did come in a smidge under New Moon, the biggest opening for that five
movie franchise. So with Harry and Bella setting a strong precedent, that means the real culprit
here is likely the decision to remain faithful to what many fans say is the worst book in
the franchise, aaaand perhaps what many have suspected for some time, that Lawrence might
sell magazines but movie tickets is a different matter. Hmm, the same problem haunts Angelina
Jolie. ScarJo, looks like you've got an opening here to be the first actress since Julia Roberts
to actually sell tickets!
Box office draw - the holy grail of movie stardom. Plenty of actors can boast such a
status, but only a handful of actresses can say the same, such as Julia Roberts, Doris
Day and Joan Crawford - yet it seems harder for actresses to not only become box office
draws but to remain box office draws as well. Let's take Julia Roberts, who used to be one
of Hollywood's biggest stars with hit after hit. Yet while she won the Oscar for Erin
Brockovich, she seems to have been struggling ever since and this weekend she hit a new
low. Yes, The Secret in their Eyes is Roberts' lowest debut ever for a movie in wide release.
It's also surely a disappointment for newbie distributor STX Entertainment, as this remake
of the Oscar winning foreign film only opened with about half of the debut of their very
first release, The Gift, just a few months ago. it's also worth noting that this is another
gender-flipped role that did not pan out at the box office, just as race-bending didn't
work out either this year. Not the kind of track record that will encourage Hollywood
to continue to try and diversify roles. But the year's not over yet, and both Creed and
Star Wars The Force Awakens will be watched closely to see how audiences react to diversification
in established, popular franchises. Sorry, Fantastic Four... Speaking of diversity, Seth
Rogen added Anthony Mackie to his list of movie-making bros, and saw solid results with
The Night Before. Rogen's holiday flick opened a bit better than the last time he teamed
up with Jonathan Levine, 50/50, but actually didn't open as well as Harold and Kumar's
similarly raunchy recent Christmas movie. Certainly not the comeback Rogen was hoping
for after The Interview debacle, but not a total embarrassment either. As for the rest
of the box office, Spectre and The Peanuts Movie continued to do strong business while
awards frontrunner Spotlight went semi-wide and broke into the top ten. And while Bridge
of Spies tried to fight the good fight and surf some positive word of mouth, it's still
about to exit the top ten with just sixty-five million, another under-performer for Hanks,
proving that male movie stars can sometimes hit the rocks too. Then in the specialty market,
Harvey Weinstein's still got it as Carol debuted with one of the best per theater averages
of the year. Although it was topped by Steve Jobs and Sicario, and those movies seem to
already be yesterday's news, so Weinstein's Carol is by no means a sure thing with this
debut. Legend also had a solid debut, yet Universal's plan to distance the UK release
from bad word of mouth on the festival circuit clearly didn't work. As for this coming weekend,
The Good Dinosaur is expected to open soft for a Pixar movie, but it'll be enough to
rule the Thanksgiving weekend. Creed should also attract some holiday moviegoers, but
it seems lightning is unlikely to strike Victor Frankenstein. And that's the weekend box office!
I'm Grace Randolph and we just did some Movie Math! Thanks for watching, and I hope you'll
go Beyond The Trailer for these other top movies...