Receipts: ‘Hunger Games’ Returns with Triumph, ‘The Marvels’ Flops
Domestic: The Hunger Games franchise prequel The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes is soaring to the top of the box office charts. With a nearly $90 million domestic gross after just one week in theaters, the film will almost surely hit the $100 million mark in its second week. Holiday moviegoers have swarmed to the fifth Hunger Games installment. With Viola Davis, Rachel Zegler, Ashley Liao, Josh Andrés Rivera, Ayomide Adegun, and Zoe Renee, Songbirds & Snakes is more than two and a half hours long, and has already captivated audiences domestically and around the globe. The film begins years before the first Hunger Games, following a young Coriolanus Snow, the president of the fictional Panem. Snow is assigned as a mentor to Lucy Gray Baird of District 12, with whom he works to uncover who is a “songbird” and who is a “snake.” With a 90% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an estimated $100 million production budget and is already on pace to be profitable upon its wide release.
Disney’s animated film Wish has struggled to compete with The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes, bringing in $20.2 million domestically over its first four days in theaters. Though expected to reign over first place this season, the film has taken a backseat to its competitor. Wish has fallen short of its projected $35 million 5-day gross and holds a disappointing 50% critics’ score on Rotten Tomatoes (though audiences are more generous, with an 80% rating.) Featuring Ariana DeBose, Harvey Guillén, Natasha Rothwell, and Ramy Youssef, the flick follows Asha (DeBose), a young girl who makes a wish that Star, a cosmic ball of energy, answers. Asha and Star work to save their kingdom from the evil King Magnifico.
Continuing a disappointing trend for the Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Marvels had the lowest opening weekend and largest second-week drop in the history of the MCU. With a $72.8 million domestic gross after two weeks in theaters, the $220-million film is unlikely to become profitable. Though the film has fared well with audiences – currently holding an 81% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes, The Marvels is another in a series of poor performers for the MCU. Featuring Park Seo-joon, Zawe Ashton, Teyonah Parris, Lashana Lynch, and Iman Vellani, the film follows Carol Danvers, or Captain Marvel, who recently regained her title from the Kree and took revenge on the Supreme intelligence. Captain Marvel must now descend down the unusual rabbit hole of a mysterious Kree revolutionary and help save an endangered universe.
International: Salman Khan’s latest box office success is Tiger 3, which ended its second week with a $2.4 million gross in the UAE, where it sits near the top of the charts, for a total worldwide gross of $9.4 million. The spy thriller is the third installment of the Tiger franchise, part of the YRF Spy Universe alongside War and Pathaan. Starring Salman Khan as Tiger and Katrina Kaif as Zoya, the Hindi-language film follows Tiger and Zoya as they work to clear their names following being framed as traitors by a disgraced ISI agent.
Godzilla Minus One is dominating the box office in Japan, where it’s brought in just over $19 million in three weeks. During those three weeks, the first new Godzilla of the Reiwa era has sat unwaveringly in the #1 spot in Japan. The film has a rare perfect score on Rotten Tomatoes, and is set for big success when it releases internationally. Starring Minami Hamabe, Kamiki Ryunosuke, Yuki Yamada, and Hidetaka Yoshioka, Godzilla Minus One follows Kenji (Yoshioka), who, in a war-sieged Japan, plots to sink the giant monster 1,500 meters below the sea.
Streaming: The 2023 thriller The Killer is enjoying its second week in the top spot on Netflix’s Global Top 10, with 44.5 million hours viewed. The film, which finds its basis in Alexis “Matz” Nolent’s graphic novel series of the same name, has an 85% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, and an ominous description of the streamer.
“Solitary, cold, methodical and unencumbered by scruples or regrets, a killer waits in the shadows, watching for his next target. Yet, the longer he waits, the more he thinks he's losing his mind, if not his cool.”
The Killer premiered at the 80th Venice International Film Festival, following which it received a limited theatrical release before coming to streaming on November 10.
The latest addition to the Fast and Furious franchise, F9, continues its four-week run in the Top 10, where it sits at #5 with 10.2 million hours watched. The 2021 film features Michelle Rodriguez, Jordana Brewster, Sung Kang, Tyrese Gibson, Nathalie Emmanuel, and Anna Sawai, along with popular musical artists Ludacris and Cardi B. F9 follows Dom Toretto (Vin Diesel), whose quiet life off the grid with his son and partner Letty (Rodriguez) is interrupted when Dom’s checkered past comes back to haunt him. He re-joins his racing team to try and stop a threatening assassin and skilled driver, who is also Dom’s estranged brother.