LOS ANGELES: Penguins of Madagascar, the fourth in the series of Madagascar films, waddled into second place on its opening weekend with $25.8 million at the United States and Canadian theatres for the three days ending on Sunday.
Walt Disney’s Big Hero 6, the box office champion three weeks ago, was third with $18.8 million in ticket sales. The film has generated $167 million since its November 7 release. Mockingjay, which stars Lawrence as young archer Katniss Everdeen who leads a rebellion, recorded $82.7 million over the five-day Thanksgiving Day weekend and has generated more than $225 million since opening on November 21.
The film, which scored the third-highest total ever for a five-day Thanksgiving weekend, has raked in $254 million outside of the US and Canada, for a global take of $480 million. Penguins added another $36 million from overseas box offices for a global total of $72 million, according to distributor 20th Century Fox. The family film saw 58 per cent of its audience under age 25 amid what the studio called a soft Thanksgiving marketplace overall.
The Thanksgiving box office haul of $230 million for Wednesday through Sunday fell far short of the record-setting figures a year ago, when moviegoers flocked to theatres for films including the second Hunger Games instalment, spending $293.7 million on all releases combined.
Rounding out the weekend’s top five, director Christopher Nolan’s space adventure Interstellar, starring Matthew McConaughey, took in $15.8 million boosted by premium-priced IMAX screenings, while the new Jason Bateman-Jennifer Aniston film Horrible Bosses 2 was fifth with $15.7 million.
The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1 was distributed by Lionsgate. 20th Century Fox, the unit of 21st Century Fox, released the Dreamworks production Penguins of Madagascar. Warner Brothers, a unit of Time Warner, distributed Horrible Bosses 2. Interstellar was released by Paramount Pictures.
Published in The Express Tribune, December 2nd, 2014.
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