'Hunger Games: Mockingjay—Part 2' Underperforms at Box Office, Still Makes a Ton of Money

It had the lowest opening weekend of the franchise, but wait until you hear how much it made.

Image via Lionsgate

The final installment of The Hunger Games, Mockingjay—Part 2, made its way to theaters this Friday and didn't do as well as the previous three films. It was projected to debut at over $120 million, but it made "only" $101 million. Although it's the lowest performing film in the series, the Jennifer Lawrence-starring picture still had the fifth-biggest opening this year. 

As a result it puts Lionsgate, the studio behind all four movies, in a weird predicament. The sci-fi epic did worse than projected and their stock went down 3 percent, but at the same time it's hard to say the movie is doing badly when it still has one of the largest openings ever (and especially of 2015). 

The film did a little bit better internationally though, bringing in $147 million. Then again, while $248 million total is an impressive number, last year's Hunger Games: Mockingjay—Part 1 opened at $274.9. This latest film was projected to surpass $300 million. 

If anything this disparity may cause studios to reconsider splitting films into parts—or at least look at things differently.

The Hunger Games: Mockingjay—Part 2 was directed by Francis Lawrence, who has directed each film other than the first, and stars Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson, and Liam Hemsworth in leading roles.

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