Dinosaurs, turkeys and a ‘Rocky’ spinoff: What movies hit or didn’t hit over the Thanksgiving weekend?

Thanksgiving weekend is always a strong one for moviegoing — between the cluster of new studio releases and the post-turkey fleeing from homes and families, multiplexes tend to be filled. Of course, the film glut — from Pixar to “Peanuts” to “Spotlight” to Rocky Balboa —means not every studio emerges equally satisfied; for every strong opening or hold there was a new release this weekend that came up short.

Here’s a breakdown of the box office for five of the big Thanksgiving films, how they fared, and why.

“The Good Dinosaur”—The movie’s $39 million weekend marks the lowest adjusted three-day opening for Pixar in its history, coming in below the $54 million of “Ratatouille” and $45 million of “Toy Story” two decades ago. Even with some added dollars from Wednesday and Thursday, the film currently stands at $56 million— which means it could end up with the lowest adjusted total of all 16 Pixar movies. (That mark, of $200 million, is held by “Cars 2.”) “Dinosaur” might be graded on a curve given its rough road to the screen (director Bob Peterson was removed midway through, replaced by Peter Sohn). As it turns out, director replacement, not entirely uncommon at Pixar, can produce a “Ratatouille,” but it can more likely be a harbinger of shaky box office: The movies with the two lowest all-time totals, “Cars 2” and “Brave,” both came with filmmaker switches.

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“The Hunger Games: Mockingjay — Part 2” — It had the lowest second-weekend drop of any of the four Katniss movies, coming in below 50%. That’s the good news. The bad news is that the movie remains on pace to be the lowest grossing installment of all four films. Two weekends in, it’s the only movie in the series not to hit $200 million in the U.S., which means its totals could fall short of the previous franchise low, “Mockingjay — Part 1’s” $337 million. Lionsgate will nonetheless come out ahead thanks to the enlarged foreign market and the relatively low cost of shooting the final two movies concurrently. Still, the U.S. total for “Mockingjay — Part 2,” which will likely end up in the $250 million to $300 million range, will be well off the franchise high of $425 million (“Catching Fire”). You can’t say they’re leaving money on the table, at least.

“Spotlight”—We’re starting to head into the witching-hour phase of “Spotlight,” Tom McCarthy’s much-beloved look at the Boston Globe’s investigation of the Catholic Church abuse scandals. As it slowly makes its way out into the world, the Open Road release has been holding its own. Last week it emerged from limited release, increasing its number of screens about tenfold to 598, and notched a solid $6,000 per-screen average. On Thanksgiving weekend it increased its theater count by an additional 50 percent and came in with nearly the same per-screen. (This despite the fact that the film is hardly typical holiday fare.) McCarthy’s movie is now at $12.4 million a month into its release, with plenty of runway ahead as the inevitable Golden Globes and Screen Actors Guild nominations arrive next week. The movie still has a long way to go — the unadjusted total of $70 million for “All the President’s Men,” e.g., is very far away. But if it’s Oscar comparisons you’re into, the movie is ahead of “Birdman” and nearly equal to “Boyhood” — different movies topically but also critically acclaimed works that got their start with strong festival debuts — at comparable points in their release lives.

“Spectre”—The drops have not been bad, all things considered — right in the 50 percent range each week. And the international totals, as they do for many franchises, continue to be stellar; the film’s now taken in $750 million around the world. Still, the $176 million the new James Bond film has grossed in the U.S. through Thanksgiving weekend puts it at the lower end of the overall, inflation-adjusted list. The film will have to dig in and take in an additional $20 million to catch “Quantum of Solace” and avoid being the lowest domestic grossing Bond film in more than a quarter century (“License to Kill” in 1989). Even it does manage to inch out ahead of “Quantum,” “Spectre” will end up in the bottom half of the overall list — No. 13 of the 25 Bond movies released to date.

“Creed”—Before box office analyses can be offered, it’s worth noting one point: The creative side was done right. Rather than being cooked up in a Hollywood Petri dish, the new “Rocky” picture was the idea and initiative of a filmmaker — Ryan Coogler, the talented director behind “Fruitvale Station.” The 29-year-old had a vision for the movie that tied in to the Balboa mythology but wasn’t being driven by it. That was at least a part of the reason the film turned out how it did, received the reviews it did, and tallied the receipts it did. With nearly $43 million over the five-day weekend and strong word of mouth, “Creed” is on course to surpass $100 million, which would make it the highest grossing picture in the franchise, when adjusting for inflation, since “Rocky IV” 30 years ago. Sometimes to reboot, don’t try so hard to reboot.

Twitter: @ZeitchikLAT

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