Mockingjay soars to Aussie box office No.1
The new Hunger Games flick has soared not just to the top of the Australian box office, but the record books, raking in a whopping $11.9 million to make it the highest opening weekend here this year.
Starring Jennifer Lawrence and Aussie Liam Hemsworth, Mockingjay – Part 1 is the third of four movies based on Suzanne Collins’ bestselling series.
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Its weekend pull put it millions ahead of this year’s previous record-holder, Transformers: Age of Extinction, which earned $8.8 million when it was released in June, according to the Motion Picture Distributors Association of Australia.
But that wasn’t all.
Mockingjay also set the box office alight on the day it was released – November 20. It took $2.8 million (including midnight sessions) to claim the biggest opening day for 2014.
However, despite the strong result, it’s still not quite as much as The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, which earned $12.5 million on its opening weekend.
It’s a similar result to the US, where Mockingjay – Part 1 set the highest weekend opening of the year, but was still below Catching Fire‘s debut.
Also doing well on the Aussie box office was Christopher Nolan’s Interstellar, starring Matthew McConaughey and Anne Hathaway, in second place with $2.2 million.
Comedy Let’s Be Cops and thriller Gone Girl each fell one place into third and fourth respectively.
Meanwhile new Kevin Kline and Maggie Smith film My Old Lady was steady in No.5, as was the Bill Nighy period comedy Pride, still in seventh place.
World War II flick Fury, starring Brad Pitt, slipped two spaces to sixth, as did romantic comedy Love, Rosie, which landed in eighth.
Keanu Reeves’ shoot ’em up movie John Wick fell one place into No.9, and The Drop, James Gandolfini’s final movie, was up one place to 10th.
TOP 10 FILMS FOR THE WEEKEND OF NOVEMBER 20-23
1. The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1 – $11.9 million (Roadshow)
2. Interstellar – $2.2 million (Warner Bros)
3. Let’s Be Cops – $761,694 (Fox)
4. Gone Girl – $478,286 (Fox)
5. My Old Lady – $380,104 (Entertainment One)
6. Fury – $344,293 (Sony Pictures)
7. Pride – $257,790 (Entertainment One)
8. Love, Rosie – $182,835 (StudioCanal)
9. John Wick – $140,879 (Roadshow)
10. The Drop – $102,005 (Fox)