‘Mockingjay’ leads holiday weekend box office; ‘Creed,’ ‘Good Dinosaur’ continue strong

Midway through the Thanksgiving holiday weekend, movie box office receipts look to be up over 2014 with a trio of movies -- “The Hunger Games: Mockingjay -- Part 2,” “The Good Dinosaur” and “Creed” -- fueling a crowded weekend at the multiplex.

“Mockingjay,” the final installment in the popular “Hunger Games” series, led the way, taking in $21.25 million on Black Friday, pushing its total box office to $167.9 million. Analysts see the movie grossing between $73 million and $75 million over the five-day weekend, bringing its domestic total to around $200 million.

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Pixar’s latest animated offering, “The Good Dinosaur,” sold $15.7 million in tickets Friday, putting its five-day projection at $55 million. Arriving five months after the critically acclaimed commercial powerhouse “Inside Out,” “The Good Dinosaur” marks the first time Pixar has released two movies in the same calendar year.

Audiences for its opening weekend liked “Dinosaur” better than critics did, giving the movie an A grade per the market research firm Cinemascore. The movie received a 67 score from the movie review aggregator site Metacritic; “Inside Out” scored a 94.

The “Rocky” spinoff “Creed,” the weekend’s other major debut, grossed $11.7 million Friday, putting it on pace for a $40-million five-day total. The movie, which has Sylvester Stallone’s Rocky Balboa character training Adonis Creed (Michael B. Jordan), the son of his one-time rival Apollo Creed, received favorable reviews and packed a punch with audiences, too, pulling in an A Cinemascore grade.

The stellar Cinemascore audience satisfaction grades for “Creed” and “The Good Dinosaur” indicate both movies could have some staying power in the competitive holiday multiplex marketplace.

One movie that probably won’t make it far into December is “Victor Frankenstein,” the weekend’s third studio debut. The film, which tells the Frankenstein story from the perspective of Igor (Daniel Radcliffe), is projected to finish the weekend with a $3-million take. Again, audiences and critics agreed: “Frankenstein” received a C Cinemascore and a 35 on Metacritic.

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