Weekend Box Office Report: December 12-14, 2014

Last Updated on August 5, 2021

Holy Moses, Exodus: Gods and Kings is #1!

It took intense prophet Christian Bale and a cycle of plauges to dethrone Katniss Everdeen at the box office this weekend, as EXODUS: GODS AND KINGS opened on top with an estimated $24.5 million!

Ridley Scott's $140 million biblical epic certainly got a better start than the director's last film THE COUNSELOR, which opened with only $7.8 million last year. But EXODUS (which took an additional $50 million overseas) floundered in comparison to the other PG-13 Old Testament retelling from earlier this year, Darren Aronofsky's NOAH, which opened with $43.7 million before going on to $101 million domestic and $362 million worldwide.

Critics treated the lavishly costumed religious spectacle like an angry God with a punishing 28% average on Rotten Tomatoes, while audiences also demonstrated a general lack of faith with their 'B-' CinemaScore.

Moving to second place after three weeks on top was THE HUNGER GAMES: MOCKINGJAY – PART 1 with $13.2 million as its worldwide total hit $661 million (helping nudge studio Lionsgate over $1 billion for the year). The computer-animated family feature PENGUINS OF MADAGASCAR also slid down a spot to third as it added another $7.3 million.

Opening in fourth was the R-rated showbiz comedy TOP FIVE with $7.2 million — on fewer than 1000 screens (and with a higher per-screen average than EXODUS). Critics applauded the new effort from writer/director/star Chris Rock, giving it an admirable 89% average on Rotten Tomatoes.

Disney's BIG HERO 6 and Christopher Nolan's INTERSTELLAR both dropped a spot, while the comedy sequel HORRIBLE BOSSES 2 fell from last week's third place position down to seventh (although it did reach its reported $42 million production cost).

After DUMB AND DUMBER TO in eighth, things get serious with the Stephen Hawking biopic THE THEORY OF EVERYTHING (up to $17.1 million as it rolls toward possible award contention) and Reese Witherspoon's wandering drama WILD, which ambled into the Top 10 with $1.5 million on just 116 screens (it expands to 850 locations next weekend)

Outside the chart, THE PYRAMID quickly crumbled, Michael Keaton's BIRDMAN lost some altitude and David Fincher's GONE GIRL is finally gone after nearly three months. In limited release, Paul Thomas Anderson's Pynchon adaptation INHERENT VICE opened with a very strong $66k per-screen average (it doesn't expand nationwide until January) and Benedict Cumberbatch's Alan Turing biopic THE IMITATION GAME is still calculating solid figures with $35k per-screen in its third weekend.

Next weekend gets ready for the Christmas rush with a new version of the classic musical ANNIE, Ben Stiller's latest living-artifact display NIGHT AT THE MUSEUM: SECRET OF THE TOMB, and the final chapter of Peter Jackson's second Tolkien trilogy THE HOBBIT: THE BATTLE OF THE FIVE ARMIES (on Wednesday).

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