Box Office Analysis: Mockingjay Midnight Numbers Potentially Spell Financial Trouble

Part of me feels like I'm Chicken Little, saying "The Sky Is Falling!" by writing this, but I also feel like it's just sort of an interesting thing to talk about. The penultimate Hunger Games movie, Mockingjay Part One, opened in theaters everywhere last night in Thursday night screenings. The amount of cash it made from those though was a bit less than expected.

Mockingjay Part One made $17 million last night, way down from the $25 million generated by Catching Fire last year and even down from the very first Hunger Games movies $19 million gross. As Box Office Mojo points out, if the movie plays like Catching Fire throughout the rest of the weekend, it would make only $107 million. I think it'll hold a little better, but I'm actually going for just a $123 million opening weekend after seeing these results, way below my original $148 million opening weekend prediction.

It'll be interesting to see if it can reverse its fortunes over the rest of the weekend from these bamboozling late night numbers.