Mockingjay rules at the box office

Los Angeles — Moviegoers wanted another helping of The Hunger Games.

The Hunger Games: Mockingjay — Part One ruled the Thanksgiving holiday box office for a second weekend in a row with $56.9m, according to studio estimates Sunday. The total haul for the latest installment of the Lionsgate dystopian series starring Jennifer Lawrence as Katniss Everdeen stands at $225.7m domestically and $254.4m internationally.



Penguins of Madagascar opened in second place with a chilly $25.8m. The animated spin-off centers on the penguin characters from DreamWorks Animation's Madagascar franchise. Penguins fared better overseas, where the film earned an additional $36m.

Disney's animated romp Big Hero 6 and Paramount's space-time saga Interstellar respectively held onto the third and fourth positions with $18.7m and $15.8m in their fourth weekend at the box office. The domestic total for Big Hero 6 has ballooned to $167.2m, while filmmaker Christopher Nolan's Interstellar is orbiting $147m.

The Warner Bros. comedy sequel Horrible Bosses 2 with Jason Bateman, Jason Sudeikis and Charlie Day reprising their roles from the original 2011 movie debuted in fifth place with $15.7m.

Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst for box office tracker Rentrak, noted the overall box office was down 21% from last year when The Hunger Games: Catching Fire and Frozen dominated the box office.

"It was a situation where there was no way the box office could live up to the strength of the marketplace a year ago at Thanksgiving," said Dergarabedian. "We had two unusually strong films at the top last year that completely knocked it out of the park."