Thanks to a remarkable hold by The Hunger Games: Catching Fire and a record setting debut by Disney’s Frozen, there was an extremely robust box office over the five-day holiday weekend.

Dipping only 52% from its monster debut, Catching Fire won the weekend earning $74.5 million over Friday to Sunday, easily outpacing my $56.8M projection. The sequel earned $110.2 million over the entire holiday frame and has taken in an astonishing $296 million in just ten days. Catching Fire is currently on pace to become 2013’s highest grossing title and should supplant the current winner Iron Man 3‘s $409 million domestic haul.

Disney’s Frozen now has the distinction of having the largest Thanksgiving opening of all time. It placed second with $66.7 million over Friday to Sunday and $93 million since its Wednesday debut (easily above my respective projections of $48.3M and $69.1M). With its A+ Cinemascore grade, expect Frozen to be a major player through the Christmas season.

Thor: The Dark World in its fourth weekend took in $11.1 million for third place, above my $9.5M estimate. In fourth, holdover The Best Man Holiday made $8.1 million in its third weekend, above my $7.1M projection.

Rounding out the top five is newcomer Homefront with Jason Statham and James Franco, debuting with middling results. The pic made $6.9 million over Friday to Sunday and $8.7 million over the five-day holiday frame. This is below my respective projections of $9.7M and $12.8M.

In sixth, Vince Vaughn’s Delivery Man dipped just 12% in weekend two with $6.9 million (above my $5.5M projection). Seventh place belonged to The Book Thief, which expanded its theater count and grossed $4.8 million over Friday to Sunday (below my $5.6M estimate) and $6.5 million over the five-day frame (just below my $7.2M estimate).

Where I really went wrong for the holiday weekend was my prediction for Black Nativity, the ensemble musical starring Forest Whitaker, Jennifer Hudson, and others. I predicted it would have a #3 showing with a healthy $19.3 million over Friday to Sunday and $26.8 million over the five day holiday weekend. Boy, was I wrong. Nativity managed just $3.8 million over Friday to Sunday and $5 million over Wedensday to Sunday. Whoops.

In ninth was Philomena with Judi Dench which also expanded its screen count to the tune of $3.7 million for Friday to Sunday (I predicted $3.9M) and $4.7 million for the five day (I said $5.1M).

Rounding out the top ten was 12 Years a Slave with $3 million (I incorrectly didn’t have it in the top ten).

Finally, Spike Lee’s Oldboy with Josh Brolin totally bombed for a 17th place showing with only $850,000 for Friday to Sunday and $1.2 million for the five day. I gave it a bit too much credit with respective predictions of $2.4M and $3.5M.

And there’s your Thanksgiving results. I’ll have my prediction up on the blog later today for next weekend’s only newbie, Out of the Furnace with Christian Bale.

***Blogger’s note: Any hardcore and even casual fan of the movies is frankly stunned by the news out of Hollywood involving the untimely death of Paul Walker. Just this year, I took it upon myself to watch all of the entries in the Fast and Furious franchise. I haven’t finished yet, but I certainly came to appreciate the talents of Mr. Walker, not just in that series of movies, but in Varsity Blues, She’s All That, Running Scared, and others. May he rest in peace.

20th Century Fox had designs on positioning Brian Percival’s The Book Thief as an Oscar contender but this has been hindered by very mixed reviews. The pic currently sits at only 49% on Rotten Tomatoes.

However, Thief has been posting solid numbers in limited release at the box office and it expands to roughly 1000 theaters over the Thanksgiving weekend. The film is based on a bestselling novel from Markus Zusak and the World War II era drama stars Geoffrey Rush, Emily Watson, and Sophie Nelisse. This past weekend, Thief earned a commendable $605,000 on only 70 screens.

I would expect The Book Thief to earn decent though unspectacular numbers in its upcoming expansion, but I don’t envision this being much of an awards contender at all.

The Book Thief opening weekend prediction: $5.6 million (Friday-to-Sunday), $7.2 million (Wednesday-to-Sunday)

For my prediction on Disney’s Frozen, click here:

https://toddmthatcher.com/2013/11/24/frozen-box-office-prediction/

For Black Nativity, click here:

https://toddmthatcher.com/2013/11/24/black-nativity-box-office-prediction/

For Homefront, click here:

https://toddmthatcher.com/2013/11/24/homefront-box-office-prediction/

For Oldboy, click here:

https://toddmthatcher.com/2013/11/24/oldboy-box-office-prediction/

For Philomena, click here:

https://toddmthatcher.com/2013/11/24/philomena-box-office-prediction/

It may not have reached some of the lofty estimates that prognosticators put out there, but The Hunger Games: Catching Fire still broke the November record while having the #4 domestic opening of all time.

Catching Fire made $161.1 million, just outpacing the $160.8M debut of last year’s The Dark Knight Rises. This is slightly below my $166.7M estimate, which was a bit lower than many other predictions. This is still a terrific opening and was +6 higher than its predecessor in March of 2012.

Truth be told, everything grossed under what I estimated for the weekend. Thor: The Dark World was second with $14.1 million in its third weekend (lower than my $16.1M prediction) and The Best Man Holiday was third with $12.5 million in weekend #2 (lower than my $15.9M prediction).

Vince Vaughn’s Delivery Man was DOA with a fourth place opening at $8.2 million (under my $11.2M prediction). This continues a recent string of flops for the actor with titles that include The Watch and The Internship. The animated Free Birds was at the five spot with $5.3 million. I incorrectly had Last Vegas taking that spot with $6.2 million (it earned $4.4M).

Be sure to check the blog as the day rolls on when I’ll be posting predictions for SIX Thanksgiving releases: Frozen, Black Nativity, Homefront, Oldboy, The Book Thief, and Philomena.