The first entry in The Hunger Games series without Jennifer Lawrence has an uphill battle and reaches a humble $6 million on early showings.
The pre-Thanksgiving fall movie season continues, and after the struggling start The Marvels had for a newly premiered Marvel movie, the new Hunger Games chapter is showing similar numbers for its Thursday night early preview debut. The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes is the first film in the series to be released after the conclusion of the Jennifer Lawrence-led entries in the series. This film takes place 64 years prior to the Katniss Everdeen stories and is adapted from the novels of the same name.
Deadline reports that the Thursday preview numbers for The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes total in at around $5.75 to $6 million at the box office from showtimes that started after 3 pm. Even though the total comes in around the same number that The Marvels debuted with, as the film currently holds the title of the lowest opening of an MCU film, it doesn’t necessarily spell flop for Songbirds & Snakes since this film’s budget cost half of Marvels’ and could still make up on the back end with the international release.
The further estimated projections for the full weekend reach over $50 million domestically and $100 worldwide. Although this installment is an extension of the big moneymaking franchise for Lionsgate, this prequel chapter does not feature the star power of Jennifer Lawrence, as her notoriety was rising during the progression of the series. The Rotten Tomatoes score is fresh at a 63%, while the audience score jumps up to a 90%
However, the review from our own Tyler Nichols stated underwhelmingly, “The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes feels like a missed opportunity to continue the Hunger Games legacy. The games feel very poorly thought out and have way too many holes in them. This leads to an unsatisfactory experience and further proof that this franchise should probably try something drastically different if it has any hopes of surviving.”