The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes will win its opening weekend at the box office. The Hunger Games prequel, which si based on the novel The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes by Suzanne Collins, earned $19.2 million on Friday (including $6 million in Thursday previews). It will earn $44 million in its first weekend at the box office. That’s shy of its $50+ million projections, but not by much. Whether it’s enough to serve as the cornerstone of a new and expanding Hunger Games franchise remains to be seen. The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes tells the tale of events that put Coriolanus Snow (Tom Blyth) on the path to becoming the dictator ruling over Panem, much of which involves Lucy Gray Baird (Rachel Zeglar), a tribute participating in the 10th Hunger Games.
Videos by ComicBook.com
The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes . ComicBook.com’s Jamie Jirak awarded the film 4.5 out of 5 possible stars in their review. She writes:
“If you’re a fan of The Hunger Games, The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes is going to transport you back to Panem with great ease. The film is daring, engaging, tense, and even occasionally funny. It’s no easy feat to make a prequel that’s just as good, if not better, than the films that came before. However, The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes manages to outshine both Mockingjay films while giving The Hunger Games and Catching Fire a run for their money. Not only is The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes faithful to the book, but it showcases one of the best casts of the year. If you have any affection for this franchise, you won’t want to miss the newest installment on the big screen.”
Trolls Band Together will open in second place at the box office. The Marvels will suffer a significant drop in its sophomore outing, landing in third place after delivering the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s weakest opening weekend at the box office. Eli Roth’s holiday horror movie Thanksgiving will find itself in fourth place, while Blumhouse’s Five Nights at Freddy’s adaptation manages to stick around in the top five for another weekend.
The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes, Trolls Band Together, The Marvels, Thanksgiving, and Five Nights at Freddy’s are all in theaters now. The list of the top 10 films at the box office this weekend follows.
1. The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes
- Opening Weekend
- Total: $44 million
Years before he becomes the tyrannical president of Panem, 18-year-old Coriolanus Snow remains the last hope for his fading lineage. With the 10th annual Hunger Games fast approaching, the young Snow becomes alarmed when he’s assigned to mentor Lucy Gray Baird from District 12. Uniting their instincts for showmanship and political savvy, they race against time to ultimately reveal who’s a songbird and who’s a snake.
Francis Lawrence directed The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes from a screenplay by Michael Lesslie and Michael Arndt, based on the 2020 novel by Suzanne Collins. It stars Tom Blyth, Rachel Zegler, Peter Dinklage, Jason Schwartzman, Hunter Schafer, Josh Andrés Rivera, and Viola Davis.
2. Trolls Band Together
Poppy discovers that Branch and his four brothers were once part of her favorite boy band. When one of his siblings, Floyd, gets kidnapped by a pair of nefarious villains, Branch and Poppy embark on a harrowing and emotional journey to reunite the other brothers and rescue Floyd from a fate even worse than pop culture obscurity.
Walt Dohmco-directed Trolls World Tour, with Tim Heitz co-directing, from a screenplay by Elizabeth Tippet. The film’s voice cast includes Anna Kendrick, Justin Timberlake, Zooey Deschanel, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Icona Pop, Anderson .Paak, Ron Funches, Kenan Thompson, Kunal Nayyar, Walt Dohrn, Eric André, Kid Cudi, Daveed Diggs, Troye Sivan, Camila Cabello, Amy Schumer, Andrew Rannells, RuPaul and Zosia Mamet.
3. The Marvels
- Week Two
- Weekend: $10.2 million
- Total: $65 million
In The Marvels, which arrived in theaters on November 10th, Carol Danvers aka Captain Marvel (Brie Larson) has reclaimed her identity from the tyrannical Kree and taken revenge on the Supreme Intelligence. But unintended consequences see Carol shouldering the burden of a destabilized universe. When her duties send her to an anomalous wormhole linked to a Kree revolutionary, her powers become entangled with that of Jersey City super-fan, Kamala Khan (Iman Vellani) aka Ms. Marvel, and Carol’s estranged niece, now S.A.B.E.R. astronaut Captain Monica Rambeau (Teyonah Parris). Together, this unlikely trio must team-up and learn to work in concert to save the universe as “The Marvels.” The Marvels will also see the franchise returns of Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury, Saagar Shaikh as Aamir Khan, Zenobia Shroff as Muneeba Khan, and Mohan Kapur as Yusuf Khan. New cast members include Zawe Ashton, Park Seo-joon, and Shamier Anderson. Produced by Marvel Studios, The Marvels is directed by Nia DaCosta with a script from DaCosta, Megan McDonnell, and Elissa Karasik.
4. Thanksgiving
- Opening Weekend
- Total: $10.2 million
An axe-wielding maniac terrorizes residents of Plymouth, Mass., after a Black Friday riot ends in tragedy. Picking off victims one by one, the seemingly random revenge killings soon become part of a larger, sinister plan.
Eli Roth directed Thanksgiving from a screenplay by Jeff Rendell, based on the story from Roth’s fake trailer in the 2007 movie Grindhouse. It stars Patrick Dempsey, Addison Rae, Milo Manheim, Jalen Thomas Brooks, Nell Verlaque, Rick Hoffman, and Gina Gershon.
5. Five Nights at Freddy’s
- Week Four
- Weekend: $3.5 million
- Total: $132.6 million
A troubled security guard begins working at Freddy Fazbear’s Pizzeria. While spending his first night on the job, he realizes the late shift at Freddy’s won’t be so easy to make it through.
Emma Tammi directed Five Nights at Freddy’s from a screenplay she co-wrote with Seth Cuddeback and Scott Cawthon, based on the Cawthon’s Five Nights at Freddy’s video game series. The movie stars Josh Hutcherson, Elizabeth Lail, Piper Rubio, Mary Stuart Masterson, and Matthew Lillard.
6. The Holdovers
- Week Four
- Weekend: $2.7 million
- Total: $8.35 million
A curmudgeonly instructor at a New England prep school remains on campus during Christmas break to babysit a handful of students with nowhere to go. He soon forms an unlikely bond with a brainy but damaged troublemaker, and with the school’s head cook, a woman who just lost a son in the Vietnam War.
Alexander Payne directed The Holdovers from a screenplay by David Hemingson. It stars Paul Giamatti, Da’Vine Joy Randolph, and Dominic Sessa.
7. Next Goal Wins
- Opening Weekend
- Total: $2.5 million
With the 2014 World Cup qualifiers approaching, down-on-his-luck coach Thomas Rongen tries to turn the American Samoa soccer team into winners.
Taika Waititi directed Next Goal Wins from a screenplay he co-wrote with Iain Morris, based on the 2014 documentary of the same name. It stars Michael Fassbender, Oscar Kightley, Kaimana, David Fane, Rachel House, Beulah Koale, Will Arnett, and Elisabeth Moss.
8. Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour
- Week Six
- Weekend: $2.4 million
- Total: $175.3 million
The cultural phenomenon continues as pop icon Taylor Swift performs hit songs in a once-in-a-lifetime concert experience.
9. Priscilla
- Week Four
- Weekend: $2.32 million
- Total: $16.98 million
When teenager Priscilla Beaulieu meets Elvis Presley at a party, the man who’s already a meteoric rock ‘n’ roll superstar becomes someone entirely unexpected in private moments: a thrilling crush, an ally in loneliness, and a gentle best friend.
Sofia Coppola directed Priscilla, which is based on Priscilla Presley’s 1985 memoir Elvis and Me. The films tars Cailee Spaeny, Jacob Elordi, and Dagmara Domińczyk.
10. Killers of the Flower Moon
- Week Five
- Weekend: $1.92 million
- Total: $63.5 million
In the 1920s, members of the Osage Native American tribe of Osage County, Oklahoma, are murdered after oil is found on their land, and the FBI decides to investigate.
Martin Scorsese directed Killers of the Flower Moon and co-wrote its screenplay with Eric Roth, based upon David Grann’s 2017 book of the same name. The film stars Leonardo DiCaprio, Robert De Niro, Lily Gladstone, Jesse Plemons, Tantoo Cardinal, John Lithgow, and Brendan Fraser.
Related Posts
-
Image Courtesy of Universal -
Image Courtesy of Lionsgate -
Sam Worthington as Jake Sully in Avatar: The Way of Water (2022)
