'Hunger Games' prequel tops Thanksgiving box office, 'Napoleon,' 'Wish' battle for second
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No one else volunteered as tribute over the Thanksgiving holiday weekend as Lionsgate's "The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes" took home the box office title for the second straight week.
The YA novel adaptation brought in $42 million domestically over the long weekend, according to estimates from measurement firm Comscore. Its sophomore outing rivaled its opening weekend total of $44 million. The film has now brought in $98.37 million in the North American box office.
The race for second place was much tighter with Columbia Pictures and Apple's historical epic "Napoleon" — produced by Apple and distributed by Sony Pictures — grabbing a five-day total of $32.5 million in North America and Disney's fantasy adventure flick "Wish" hauling in $31.7 million.
“The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes” exceeded its second weekend projections of $30 million. "Wish" fell short of its projected five-day total of $45 million to $50 million and "Napoleon" stood above its projected $22 million five-day total.
Read more: Review: Joaquin Phoenix plays a buffoonish Bonaparte in the lavish but threadbare 'Napoleon'
Rounding out the top five at the domestic box office over the five-day weekend were Universal Pictures' "Trolls Band Together," which brought in $25.3 million in its second weekend for a North American cumulative of $64.47 million; and TriStar Pictures and Spyglass Media Group's "Thanksgiving," which scared up $11.13 million in its second turn for a North American total of $24.19 million.
Directed by Ridley Scott, "Napoleon" follows the rise, fall, return and second fall of French emperor Napoleon Bonaparte (Joaquin Phoenix) and his roller-coaster love affair with his first wife Joséphine (Vanessa Kirby). The film also stars Tahar Rahim, Rupert Everett and Ludivine Sagnier.
The R-rated drama scored a middling 61% critics score and a 59% audience score on the review aggregation site Rotten Tomatoes. It garnered a B-minus grade from audiences polled by CinemaScore.
"Too often, though, 'Napoleon’s' withering condemnation of its subject feels less like a meaningful conclusion than a narrative dodge, a convenient way to sidestep a more trenchant, complicated look at Napoleon’s political legacy," writes Times film critic Justin Chang.
Read more: Review: Disney's 'Wish' feels cobbled together from 100 years of better movies
"It’s often been said, given Scott’s skills as a superb visual craftsman and cinematic logician, that he’s only ever as good as his material — a reductive formulation that happens to be true in this instance. But it’s also true that, not for the first time with a Scott picture, the theatrical version is just a teaser for what’s to come," Chang continues. "A four-hour 'Napoleon' will stream on Apple TV+ at an unspecified date and, without judging it sight unseen, it seems reasonable to hope that it presents a richer, more cohesive and expansive vision of the story. Behind every so-so movie, after all, is a potentially great director’s cut."
Opening next weekend in wide release are "Renaissance: A Film by Beyoncé," which is being released through a direct distribution deal with AMC Theatres, Brainstorm Media's "Rise of the Footsoldier: Vengeance" and Lionsgate's "Silent Night."
This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
