Weekend box-office – 13th to 19th of December 2014 – will the Hunger Games prevail in slow week?

The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1 opened with a bang a couple of weeks back, its $120 million opening becoming the biggest of the year, but things have died down greatly now: this week’s highest new entry was horror flick The Pyramid at nine but this spells a second chance for Horrible Bosses 2. The dark comedy sequel (starring Jason Bateman, Jason Sudeikis, Charlie Day, Jennifer Aniston, Chris Pine, Jamie Foxx, Kevin Spacey and Christoph Waltz) entered fifth last week and will hope to make an improvement now. Last week, we predicted it as a non-mover but let’s see what happens in this new edition of the Weekend Box-Office

US:

1. The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1 – Director: Francis Lawrence – $22 million
2. Penguins of Madagascar – Eric Darnell, Simon J Smith – $10.9 million
3. Horrible Bosses 2 – Sean Anders – $8.4 million
4. Big Hero 6 – Don Hall, Chris Williams – $8 million
5. Interstellar – Christopher Nolan – $7.8 million

UK:

1. Paddington – Paul King – £3.8 million
2. The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1 – Francis Lawrence – £2.2 million
3. Penguins of Madagascar – Eric Darnell, Simon J Smith – £1.6 million
4. The Imitation Game – Morten Tyldum – £0.9 million
5. Horrible Bosses 2 – Sean Anders – £0.6 million

Although a 60% drop hurt its chances, young adult, dystopian action The Hunger Games unsurprisingly triumphed this week but the real shock was Horrible Bosses’ leap to third. Its overall takings are still mediocre and, despite the strength of its stars, this is still a failure. In the UK, family comedy Paddington retains top spot while Dreamworks’ animation spin off Penguins of Madagascar makes a vastly disappointing third place entry. This week I’ve scored an impressive 7/10.

US:

1. Exodus: Gods and Kings – Ridley Scott
2. The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1 – Francis Lawrence
3. Top Five – Chris Rock
4. Penguins of Madagascar – Eric Darnell, Simon J Smith
5. Inherent Vice – Paul Thomas Anderson

UK:

1. The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies – Peter Jackson
2. Paddington – Paul King
3. The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1 – Francis Lawrence
4. Penguins of Madagascar – Eric Darnell, Simon J Smith
5. The Imitation Game – Morten Tyldum

Natalie Dormer, Jennifer Lawrence, Liam Hemsworth and Mahershala Ali in The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1, this week’s US number one.

Ben Whishaw in Paddington, this week’s UK number one.