'Mockingjay' Wins Again At Thanksgiving Box Office

Thanksgiving is usually a pretty big moviegoing weekend. It's nice to leave the house for a little, but not do something too active; we're all recovering from the feast, after all. Unfortunately for new releases this holiday weekend, The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1 took home the prize. Even though the third installment of the teen franchise didn't do quite as well as expected on its opening weekend, it made up for lost time, earning the top box office slot and almost $87.2 million in its second weekend, the third best total over any Thanksgiving holiday.

New releases Penguins of Madagascar and Horrible Bosses 2 were not so lucky. The animated spinoff in the Madagascar franchise came in second, earning $36 million over the long weekend. Another animated family film, Big Hero Six came in third, doing remarkably well on its fourth weekend. Another holdover, Christopher Nolan's Interstellar, came in 4th.

Horrible Bosses 2, the other major new release, came in at an unexpectedly low 5th. It was a big weekend for sequels, but this one did not make the cut, despite the return of an all star comedic cast featuring Jason Bateman, Jennifer Anniston, and Jason Sudeikis.

Though the biopic The Imitation Game only debuted in a select number of theaters, it drew an astonishing $482,000, probably due to the star power of Benedict Cumberbatch, who plays historical genius Alan Turing. Another genius biopic, The Theory of Everything about Stephen Hawking, has expanded its release and came in 7th overall. It seems that this Thanksgiving weekend, adult moviegoers were interested in feeding their minds as well as their stomachs.