While the Penguins Of Madagascar have already been flapping their way through China for two frames, this is the weekend when Kowalski and crew will look to carve out a domestic niche. In their first full day of release on Wednesday, the DreamWorks Animation spin-off creatures waddled away with $ 6.25M at 3,654 locations, taking less than half of what Katniss Everdeen stuffed into the Hunger Games franchise quiver. Mockingjay Part 1 added an estimated $ 14.55M at 4,151 North American dates on Wednesday, up 20% from the previous day, but down from Catching Fire‘s $ 20.8M Wednesday last Thanksgiving. The domestic total is now $ 157.56M, propelling the penultimate finale’s worldwide cume close to $ 350M. The other new entry this frame, Warner Bros’ and New Line’s sequel Horrible Bosses 2, scored an early bonus with Tuesday previews coming in at $ 1M – that was up from the $ 365K the first film did in its July 2011 late nights. On Wednesday, Horrible Bosses 2 schemed for $ 4.25M at 3,321 dates. The first film’s ultimate gross was about $ 210M with $ 117.5M from domestic.
Mockingjay has a lot to live up to given that last year’s The Hunger Games: Catching Fire set an all-time record for any film, opener or second-framer, playing the Thanksgiving five-day with $ 109.9M. (Typically, numbers run lower on the Thanksgiving Thursday with attention turned to food, family and football, but Fridays see marked upticks.) Although it’s come in lower domestically than its predecessor, Mockingjay has been voracious at the international box office, last weekend running 5%-19% above Catching Fire in most major markets. The Penguins, meanwhile, have been off to a good start in China with a cume through Sunday of $ 23.3M and two more weeks to run there — while the film plays against Interstellar. Along with North America, it opens in 40+ markets this weekend. Horrible Bosses 2 is also making its international debut in about 45 markets and is expected to outperform the first Jason Bateman, Jason Sudeikis, Charlie Day and Jennifer Aniston comedy. But it could have a bear of a time in the UK where the glowingly-reviewed Paddington is pulling into the station.
I’ll have Thursday numbers tomorrow, and the regular domestic box office crew will take you through the weekend beginning Saturday while I focus on overseas. Happy Thanksgiving!
Nancy Tartaglione
