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J. Don Birnam: Although I think it's clear that Lionsgate made the right call, when you add the two totals, I think the drop-off is explained because of the weak source material.

I personally found the third book the weakest of the three, and the two movies based off of it were similarly weak. I actually watched all four movies back to back yesterday (culminating with going to the theater for the fourth one) and it is striking how bad the last ones are compared to the excitement of the first two.

The Hunger Games concept is great and works very well, and she could pull it off for a second time with The Quarter Quell. But she couldn't do it a third time, despite the filmmakers attempt to make it a "hunger games" type hunt in the capitol in the last movie. Without the Hunger Games twist, the movie became a somewhat generic futuristic dictatorship movie.

I think the drop-off from word of mouth is going to be even more stunning, for what it's worth.

Max Braden: Since I don't know the latter source material well or its audience reaction to it, I can't blame the content. For me this result just fits in with a pattern I feel like we've been seeing all year: lack of enthusiasm in movies in general. I know we've had some big ones - Avengers 2, the record opening of Jurassic World, the record pre-sales of Star Wars - but I just didn't sense any buzz or push around this movie or many others this year. Did I miss some advertising for it? I know a huge franchise like this doesn't really need it, but I've been watching TV this season and really can't recall seeing any ads for the movie. In contrast, I saw a lot of ads for Spectre, and not just volume but also a sense that this was going to be the biggest, best Bond yet. There was a ton of advertising for Avengers 2. I neither saw nor felt any of that for Mockingjay 2. And I don't know how the content would affect the numbers this much. Deathly Hallows 2 had the biggest opening of the series by a large margin. Breaking Dawn 2 improved on Breaking Dawn 1. And a week ago it seemed reasonable to expect Mockingjay 2 to match its predecessor in the $125 million opening range. This opening is a nearly 20% drop off from Mockingjay - Part 1. I just think there's some very selective audience interested at work in the movie industry this year.

Hey, has anyone used the headline "Hunger Games Suffers Quarter Quell"? I should totally get credit for that.

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