GameSpot may receive revenue from affiliate and advertising partnerships for sharing this content and from purchases through links.

Star Wars 7 and Terrorism Hurt Latest Hunger Games, Lionsgate Says

The Force Awakens took as much as $100 million away from Mockingjay - Part 2, Lionsgate exec says.

84 Comments

The Hunger Games Mockingjay Part 2 opened in November 2015 to the worst performance in the history of the dystopian movie series. Lionsgate, the film company behind it, has offered its take on why it thinks the movie came up short--and it had to do with Star Wars and terrorism.

No Caption Provided

During an earnings call today attended by Deadline, Lionsgate executives said Star Wars: The Force Awakens took away between $50 million and $100 million from Mockingjay Part 2. The film opened in November, a full month before The Force Awakens, which has gone on to break all kinds of records.

Lionsgate Motion Picture Group co-chairman Rob Friedman added that the terrorist attacks in Paris, which occurred in the middle of November around the time of the movie's release, hurt the box office performance in Europe.

"I think the combination of circumstances was unique between the terrorist attack in Europe and Star Wars," Friedman said.

Although Mockingjay - Part 2's opening weekend haul of $101 million was a franchise low, it still became one of only 34 movies in history to open above $100 million. It fell short of Mockingjay Part 1, which opened with $121.9 million in 2014. The series high is the second movie, Catching Fire, which debuted to a colossal $158 million in 2013.

According to numbers on BoxOfficeMojo, Mockingjay - Part 2 has made more than $652 million to date against a reported budget of $160 million.

Mockingjay - Part 2 was the final film to be adapted from Suzanne Collins' novels, but the movie series is far from over. In December, Lionsgate confirmed that more Hunger Games movies are to be developed, potentially in the form of prequels.

Got a news tip or want to contact us directly? Email news@gamespot.com

Join the conversation
There are 84 comments about this story