World Box Office

Star Wars: The Force Awakens made the jump to hyperspace in its first weekend in theaters. Ten years after the release of Revenge of the Sith, the third installment in creator George Lucas’s prequel series that began in 1999 with The Phantom Menace, director J.

Warner Bros. ’ In the Heart of the Sea found itself gasping for air after a disappointing $11 million domestic opening weekend.

As the studios batten down the hatches and prepare for the category five storm of Star Wars: The Force Awakens, due out in theatres worldwide in two weeks, there were few new entries to the domestic and international markets. Warner Bros.

Along with turkey, cranberries and pumpkin pie, Americans filled up again on The Hunger Games over this Thanksgiving weekend. Hunger Games: Mockingjay, Part 2, the last entry in Lionsgate’s wildly successful four-movie series, made $75.

With Bond starting to return his famous Walther PPK to the holster, Katniss Everdeen, the heroine of District 12 and The Hunger Games, notched her bow and fired a strong first shot at the U. S.

This weekend’s top new releases each reprised increasingly recycled genres with varying degrees of success. Insurgent, in which Shailene Woodley plays an exceptionally gifted teenager who is forced to take the weight of the world on her shoulders in order to save her dystopian society from further misery, opened in the United States to a comfortable $54 million.

After three days of close sparring, David Fincher’s provocative adult drama Gone Girl edged out horror spinoff Annabelle to finish first on the domestic charts with a well earned$38 million. Based on Gillian Flynn’s bestselling 2012 book, this cerebral thriller pits husband and wife Ben Affleck and Rosamund Pike against each other in a contest which dissects not only their relationship but also the institution of marriage itself as well the inflammatory nature of the media in the United States.

There was no second coming for Johnny Depp’s status as the world’s biggest box office draw, as Transcendence opened on Easter weekend to a disappointing $11. 5 million in 3,455 North American theaters.