(Los Angeles) The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakesa prequel to the saga of the same name, topped the North American box office for its first weekend of operation, with $44 million collected between Friday and Sunday, according to estimates from the specialist firm Exhibitor Relationships.
The film is showing “very good numbers” for an action prequel and should do well internationally as well, said David Gross, industry expert at Franchise Entertainment Research.
Starring in the fifth film in the saga are Tom Blyth, as Coriolanus Snow (a character played by Donald Sutherland in the first films), Rachel Zegler, but also Peter Dinklage and Jason Schwartzman.
The plot takes place around the 10e edition of the Hunger Games, in the dystopian universe of Panem.
Another exit, Trolls Band Together enters directly into second place in the ranking with 30.6 million dollars in revenue.
This animated film tells the story of Branch and the boy band he formed with his brothers. When one of them is kidnapped, Branch and his sweetheart Poppy go looking for him.
The decline is confirmed, however, for the superheroine film The Marvelsfrom the eponymous studios, which after a more than disappointing debut last week now occupies third place in the ranking ($10.2 million).
In this feature film, Carol Danvers, aka Captain Marvel (still played by Brie Larson), is assigned two partners from the Disney+ series WandaVision and Miss Marvel: Monica Rambeau, played by Teyonah Parris, and Kamala Khan, played by Iman Vellani.
The three women are forced to team up to save the Universe, as they involuntarily swap bodies when using their powers, due to an anomaly.
Thanksgiving is in fourth place at the box office for its first weekend in theaters (also $10.2 million). The film, which as its name suggests is in the horror genre, takes place in a small town in the northeast of the United States, terrorized by an ax killer at the time of the famous North American holiday. .
In fifth position, another horror film, Five Nights at Freddy’swhich raked in $3.5 million.
The rest of the top 10
6. The Holdovers ($2.7 million)
7. Next Goal Wins (2.5 million)
8. Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour (2.4 million)
9. Priscilla (2.3 million)
10. Killers of the Flower Moon (1.9 million)