Not many movies can do $100 million in their opening weekend and still find themselves dubbed a “disappointment,” but then again, not many movies are Hunger Games movies. Mockingjay—Part 2 was the fourth such movie in as many years, bringing the series to its appropriately dramatic conclusion, and while we’ve seen much speculation about spin-offs and prequels and even (God help us) theme park rides, weekend box office suggests they may be ending the series right on time.
Weekend estimates put Part 2 at $101 million—the lowest domestic opener for the series by a wide margin, behind Catching Fire’s $158 million, Hunger Games’ $152 million, and Part 1’s $121 million. So what happened? Theories abound, from stiff competition (in big action-based blockbuster world, Spectre is still pulling pretty respectable numbers) to subject matter overload (if you haven’t noticed, there’s no shortage these days of dystopian YA adaptations) to franchise fatigue. And it was yet another book series adaptation where the last single volume was split into two movies, which we’re hearing more and more grumbling about these days.
Whatever the case, nobody’s gonna end up on a bread line or anything. But a box office decrease like this one, on such a high-profile franchise, is a welcome challenge to the conventional Hollywood wisdom that more is always better.