How 'Good Dinosaur' performed at the box office and a look at end-of-the-year results
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Molly Driscoll Staff writer
鈥淭he Hunger Games: Mockingjay 鈥� Part 2鈥� landed on top of the box office over Thanksgiving weekend, while Pixar's "The Good Dinosaur" and the latest film in the 鈥淩ocky鈥� movie series, 鈥淐reed,鈥� also performed well.
鈥淢ockingjay,鈥� which opened聽on Nov. 20,聽domestically grossed more than $51 million this past weekend. The movie is the fourth and final installment of the dystopian young adult film series.聽
The new animated Pixar film 鈥淭he Good Dinosaur鈥� came in second, grossing more than $39 million domestically, while 鈥淐reed,鈥� which stars 鈥淔antastic Four鈥� actor Michael B. Jordan as boxer Apollo Creed鈥檚 son, also did very well, coming in third place with a domestic gross of more than $30 million.
The movie 鈥淰ictor Frankenstein鈥� with James McAvoy and Daniel Radcliffe couldn鈥檛 scare up a crowd over the weekend, with the film opening with over $2 million, below even October鈥檚 science fiction release 鈥淭he Martian.鈥�
The triumph of 鈥淢ockingjay鈥� shows that a "Hunger Games" film can still be a strong performer on a holiday weekend, and that there is still at least some appetite for the film series and for that genre in general. The movies are based on a popular book series, and the previews promised plenty of action.
Meanwhile, the success of 鈥淐reed鈥� shows an appetite for more 鈥淩ocky鈥� films, and for nostalgia in general. Audiences want to see new films in old movie series if they have an interesting premise, as evidenced by the major box office performance of 鈥淛urassic World鈥� this past summer.聽
鈥淒inosaur鈥� came out on an ideal weekend, when moviegoers were no doubt looking for a film that could appeal to all ages. Perhaps 鈥淒inosaur鈥� could have done better if it had had the stellar reviews of, for example, this year鈥檚 Pixar production 鈥淚nside Out,鈥� which performed extremely well this summer.
However, the performance of 鈥淒inosaur鈥� shows that audiences will still turn out for a Pixar movie. Moviegoers have no doubt learned that most Pixar films will have a creative story that will satisfy all ages. "Dinosaur" may be remembered as one of the studio's lesser films, but reviews weren't terrible 鈥� just less positive than other films by the聽computer animation film聽studio.
As the end of the year approaches, there are still some possible blockbusters to come, including the film that will almost certainly beat everything this year and possibly become one of the highest-grossing movies of all time: 鈥淪tar Wars: The Force Awakens.鈥�
But the end-of-the-year rankings as they stand now show what we鈥檝e already seen with 鈥淐reed鈥�: movies that are rooted in nostalgia but are given enough of a new spin will appeal to many. 鈥淛urassic World鈥� is currently the highest-grossing film of the year.聽
Marvel continues to triumph as well 鈥� audiences still want more of the company鈥檚 superheroes and haven鈥檛 tired of seeing them team up, as evidenced by Marvel鈥檚 鈥淎vengers: Age of Ultron鈥� coming in second. "Ant-Man" isn't too far down, ranking at number 11.
The appeal of Pixar continues with 鈥淚nside Out鈥� placing third for the year at this time, and the positive box office performance of 鈥淢inions,鈥� which places fifth, shows that audiences will turn out for familiar animated characters, no doubt especially when the previous movies in the series got good reviews (critics for the most part enjoyed 鈥淒espicable Me鈥� and, to a slightly lesser extent, 鈥淒espicable Me 2,鈥� the predecessors to 鈥淢inions鈥�).
鈥淢ockingjay 鈥� Part 2鈥� is already the eighth-highest-grossing film of the year, though that is far below, for example, 鈥淢ockingjay 鈥� Part 1鈥� becoming the second-highest-grossing movie of 2014 and 鈥淭he Hunger Games: Catching Fire鈥� coming in at number one in 2013. The gross of 鈥淢ockingjay 鈥� Part 2鈥� is far below those of the other films so far.聽
It will be interesting to see how dystopian young adult film series perform in the future, as the successors of the 鈥淗unger Games鈥� like the 鈥淒ivergent鈥� and 鈥淢aze Runner鈥� movies have often performed well but not achieved the numbers of 鈥淗unger.鈥� These film series may need their book source material to become a true phenomenon to establish the base needed for these major box office returns.
鈥淢ockingjay 鈥� Part 2鈥� could of course pass movies currently above it in the rankings. But it鈥檚 interesting to see that stories that are inspiring and have cheerful endings like 鈥淭he Martian鈥� and 鈥淚nside Out鈥� placed above the gloomy 鈥淢ockingjay.鈥� Perhaps audiences tired of Katniss鈥檚 morally gray world.
While "Martian" is based on a bestselling book and had a star-studded cast as well as a director very familiar to science fiction fans, it is worth emphasizing just how well the movie did, placing above such high-profile offerings as Marvel's "Ant-Man," the James Bond movie "Spectre" (so far), and especially the badly-received "Terminator" film "Terminator Genisys" (which could be seen as an example of nostalgia done without a satisfying story).
"Martian" is a crowd-pleasing sci-fi film stuffed with interesting visuals that's along the lines of the 1995 film "Apollo 13" and the more recent movies "Gravity" and "Interstellar." The great performance of "Martian" shows there is still interest in these space-set movies.
