‘Mockingjay’ tops weekend box office

The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1, starring Jennifer Lawrence as the young archer who rallies the downtrodden citizens of a dystopian society, collected $21.6 million to lead the box office charts for a third consecutive weekend.

DreamWorks Animation’s Penguins of Madagascar was second with $11.1 million at U.S. and Canadian theaters during a slow post-Thanksgiving weekend, when moviegoers traditionally turn their attention toward shopping.

Horrible Bosses 2, starring Jason Bateman, Charlie Day and Jason Sudeikis as entrepreneurs who help to stage a kidnapping to get ahead, was third with $8.6 million in sales for the three days from Friday through Sunday, according to Rentrak estimates.

Mockingjay has collected $257.7 million since its Nov. 21 release, according to Rentrak. Based on author Suzanne Collins’s best-selling book, the movie has a global total of more than $560 million. The film’s performance put it on track to become the year’s second-highest grossing film, behind only “Guardians of the Galaxy,” early this week, Rentrak said.

But Mockingjay will likely finish below last year’s The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, according to Box Office Mojo, which said November’s overall box office total was down 4 percent from 2013’s. For the year it forecast a 3 percent drop from the $10.6 billion recorded last year.

Rounding out this week’s top five, Disney’s Big Hero 6 was fourth with $8.1 million. It has totaled $177.5 million since its Nov. 7 release. Director Christopher Nolan’s space adventure Interstellar was fifth with $8 million. The film starring Matthew McConaughey has total domestic sales of $158.7 million.

Lionsgate distributed The Hunger Games: Mockingjay-Part 1. The Penguins of Madagascar was released by Fox, a unit of Twenty-First Century Fox. Disney released Big Hero 6. Interstellar was released by Paramount Pictures, a unit of Viacom. Warner Brothers, a unit of Time Warner, distributed Horrible Bosses 2.

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