1. The Hunger Games: Mockingjay-Part 2- $11.3M/$244.4M
2. In the Heart of the Sea (review here) - $11M
Sinking to a watery grave is Ron Howard's whaling aventure, In the Heart of the Sea, which drowned with only $11M plus an additional $18M overseas. So count this as the second starring flop for Chris Hemsworth (you forgot Blackhat didn't you? And we'll excuse him for Vacation) that wasn't an Avengers movie. The film had initially been pegged for earlier in the year when it would have been a bigger deal, but then Warner Bros. pushed it to December so it could be considered an Oscar contender. But Moby Dick-inspiring tale isn't really on that level, and none of the promos made it look like anything more than a really expensive period piece. A shame since it's actually a very good film that would have been better served if it was released next month.
3. The Good Dinosaur- $10.4M/$89.6M
4. Creed- $10.1M/$79.3M
5. Krampus- $8M/$28.1M
The first of two offbeat Christmas movies that look like hits (the other is The Night Before) this season, Krampus held up well dropping only 51% in its second week, based largely on word-of-mouth since it wasn't extenstively promoted.
6. Spectre- $4M/$190.7M
7. The Night Before- $3.9M/$38.2M
8. The Peanuts Movie- $2.6M/$124.9M
9. Spotlight- $2.5M/$20.3M
10. Brooklyn- $1.9M/$14.3M
The big winner of the week was Adam McKay's financial crisis film, The Big Short (review here), which has hurried into the awards season. It turns out to have been a smart move for Paramount Pictures as the star-studded pic opened in only 8 locations and earned $720K. McKay is the guy we normally associate with Will Ferrell comedies like Anchorman and The Other Guys, but he got semi-serious and lured in stars Steve Carell, Brad Pitt, Christian Bale, and Ryan Gosling to spin a story about the housing market crash of 2008. We'll see how it does upon expansion in the coming weeks.
