Weekend box office: Krampus can’t dethrone The Hunger Games

Brad Sturdivant December 6th, 2015

I find the Christmas-horror movie one of the strangest sub-genres in film and one that I would never expect to find box office success. But if you consider a $15+ million opening a success, then KRAMPUS fits the bill. It wasn’t enough to beat THE HUNGER GAMES: MOCKINGJAY – PART 2 at the weekend box office, but KRAMPUS definitely scored more than I would have thought. But there are no other horror movies in theaters and the only other Christmas movie is THE NIGHT BEFORE in its third week, so maybe by combining the genres, KRAMPUS was able to appeal to two different audiences. Still, the folks over at Legendary Pictures have to be pretty pleased with themselves this morning. I can already hear the bells ringing for a sequel. And here’s hoping the film’s success will get Adam Scott a role he actually deserves.

Next week will probably belong to Chris Hemsworth as his latest film, IN THE HEART OF THE SEA opens up. The studio pushed the Ron Howard film to awards season, leading me to believe they feel they have something special on their hands. We also get a wider release of LEGEND, which features one good and one okay performance from Tom Hardy. If you live in one of the few choice cities, you can also catch THE BIG SHORT, which opens in a limited release. THE BIG SHORT will get attention for starring Christian Bale, Ryan Gosling and Brad Pitt, but big names don’t always translate to box office success. In the end, The Hunger Games should fall to IN THE HEART OF THE SEA. Note: the numbers below will be updated as they become final.

1. The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2 $18.8m

2. Krampus $15.3m

3. The Good Dinosaur $15.1m

4. Creed $14.6m

5. Spectre $5.6m

6. The Night Before $4.9m

7. The Peanuts Movie $3.4m

8. Spotlight $2.9m

9. Brooklyn $2.7m

10. Secret in Their Eyes $2m

(Deadline)