THE HUNGER GAMES: THE BALLAD OF SONGBIRDS AND SNAKES, TROLLS BAND TOGETHER, THANKSGIVING, and NEXT GOAL WINS openings | November 17 to 19, 2023 weekend
Opening weekend box office, charts and commentary
The current weekend: November 17 to 19, 2023
1) The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes opening
- This is a very good opening for an action adventure prequel. On average, prequels start with approx. half of the previous film's opening, and this weekend’s figure is close to that. It’s also above average for a prequel start, and foreign business should be solid. Following four giant Hunger Games films (each opened to over $100m), these are very good numbers:
2) Trolls Band Together opening
- The Trolls series was completely disrupted by the start of the pandemic. Trolls 2 was scheduled to open on March 20, 2020, but managed only $450k of domestic BO as theaters immediately shut down. It had more time overseas and made $48.8m abroad.
Trolls Band Together is reaching its young audience before Disney's Wish opens next weekend. The pic has already earned over $75m in foreign markets. This is not Disney, Pixar or Illumination levels of business (those sequels are responsible for the strong averages below), but the cost was less than half of those productions (an est. $95m). Audience scores are outstanding (an A CinemaScore). The movie should have a healthy run now:
3) Thanksgiving opening
- This opening is a bit above average for a single episode horror title. However, as the launch of a horror series — if that’s what the film aims to be — it's below average. Reviews are excellent and the picture should play well over the upcoming Thanksgiving weekend.
Foreign audiences are not familiar with the Thanksgiving holiday, and that will be an obstacle overseas:
4) Next Goal Wins opening
- This is a weak opening for a sports comedy drama. These are small movies to begin with, and they generally struggle internationally. In this case, fútbol/soccer has more foreign appeal than American football, baseball and basketball, and that may help the film abroad, but it’s still a difficult sell:
