Ridley Scott’s less-than-perfect production, Exodus: Gods and Kings, topped the weekend charts by finally taking down The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1. Exodus still managed to bring in $24.5 million despite controversially “white washing” the cast of a film that takes place in Ancient Egypt, and receiving generally poor reviews – currently sitting rotten at 27% on Rotten Tomatoes.
That big weekend opening for Exodus knocked everyone else down a spot. The Hunger Games is finally starting to slip, bringing in $13.2 million (a 40% drop from last week) and getting dropped down to number two on the list. Behind that was Penguins of Madagascar, which brought in $7.3 million, or a 33% drop from last week. Another opener, Top Five, which stars Chris Rock and the the rehabbing Tracy Morgan, grossed $7.2 to debut at number four. Rounding out the top five was Big Hero 6, which also continues to slip, bringing in $6.1 million at a 23% drop from last weekend.
Inherent Vice, a film adapted of the Thomas Pynchon novel of the same name, debuted in only five theaters to to the tune of $330,000 – or an impressive $66,000 per-theater average. Starring Joaquin Phoenix, Josh Brolin, Owen Wilson, Reese Witherspoon, and featuring director Paul T. Anderson’s signature style, the film is currently fresh on Rotten Tomatoes at 73%.
Another film featuring Reese Witherspoon, Jean-Marc Vallee’s Wild, had its theater presence greatly expanded by Fox Searchlight – now being shown in 95 additional theaters from last week. This lead to the Oscar contender bringing in $1.6 million, or a 155.4% increase over last week.
Even as it showed in 132 less theaters than last week, Birdman still brought in $1.3 million, or 15.2% more than last week as presumably it’s another film that is generating a lot of interest thanks to heavy Oscar buzz.
Fresh off of being voted “the worst movie of all time” by IMDB users, Kirk Cameron’s Saving Christmas still brought in $52,200 as its theater presence continues to dwindle.
Last year at this time we were greeted with our first look at The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, which debuted with a massive $73.6 million weekend. The final film in the Hobbit trilogy, The Battle of the Five Armies, debuts this Wednesday. Following Smaug being desolated in 2013 was Disney’s Frozen at $22.6 million, which was still going strong after a month of being in theaters. Also debuting this time last year was American Hustle, which raked in several awards throughout the year.
[button type=”link” link=”http://boxofficemojo.com/weekend/chart/” size=”btn-sm” variation=”btn-danger” target=”blank”]Source: Box Office Mojo[/button]Last Updated on November 27, 2018.
