American audiences were apparently looking for a little bit of fright with their festivity, as, initially triumphing at the box office on Friday, Krampus scored a strong second place launch, arriving behind The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2 this weekend.
But Katniss and co. still managed to see off the unexpectedly strong competition from the scary Christmas creature feature, spending a third week at the top of the charts and earning an estimated $18.6 million. The movie’s US total is now past $227 million and the final Hunger Games entry is nearing $524 million globally. Still, Krampus, with a considerably smaller budget to make back, is already looking like a success, earning $16 million this first weekend on release. The blend of horror and comedy was apparently just what people were looking for in a season of family films and Oscar hopefuls.
Creed, which has won plenty of praise (and may well have earned director Ryan Coogler a big new job), held strong in third, adding $15.54 million to its total. Pixar’s The Good Dinosaur took a tumble from second to fourth, but still managed to earn $15.51 million. Fifth place went to Spectre, which made $5.4 million.
Christmas comedy The Night Before took in $4.9 million in sixth, ahead of The Peanuts Movie, which was down to seventh with $3.5 million. True-life journalism drama Spotlight stayed at eighth and $2.9 million, while Brooklyn continued to call ninth place home with $2.4 million. Finally, thriller remake Secret In Their Eyes, which hasn’t exactly made much of an impact, fell to 10th place on $1.9 million. Despite the likes of Nicole Kidman, Julia Roberts and Chiwetel Ejiofor in the cast, the movie has only managed $17.2 million in the States to date and seems set to fall from the top 10 next weekend.