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UPDATE #2: As of 5:43 PM PST, Disney is now projecting a $120+ million Friday opening (including Thursday previews) for Star Wars: The Force Awakens and an early estimate of $215+ million for the weekend.

Star Wars: The Force Awakens has finally arrived. Audiences across the globe now have a chance to experience the first Star Wars film in over ten years and anticipation couldn't be higher. Star Wars changed movies forever when the saga began back in 1977 and this newest installment enters a marketplace where the industry itself has changed, several times over, in the 38 years since we all began to feel the Force.

The director/star pairing of Ron Howard and Chris Hemsworth just can't seem to deliver a break-out box office success. After the well-received Rush fizzled at the box office back in 2013, In the Heart of the Sea struggled mightily this weekend, opening in second place, giving The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 2 its fourth straight weekend at #1. Most notably, the weekend top twelve grossed a mere $68.7 million, the worst this weekend has seen since Star Trek: Insurrection topped the box office in 1998.

UPDATE: In the Heart of the Sea brought in $575,000 from Thursday night preshows. For the sake of comparison, Bridge of Spies brought in $500,000 from preshows in mid-October before opening with $15.3 million and, back in 2013, Captain Phillips kicked off on Thursday with $600,000 before opening with $25.7 million. In the Heart of the Sea is opening in a few more theaters than Captain Phillips did, but it does have 3D and IMAX ticket prices that must be taken into consideration. All told, these numbers don't really tell us much and it's still looking like an opening in the $15 million range. The original weekend forecast follows...

Universal's Krampus had a wonderful opening as the Christmas-themed horror comedy managed a second place finish, just behind The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 2, which took first place for a third weekend in a row. Creed held strong as it finds itself in a neck-and-neck battle for third place with Pixar's The Good Dinosaur, which is really struggling to find a foothold, becoming only the second Pixar film to drop more than 60% in its second weekend.

Universal is releasing the holiday-themed horror comedy Krampus into just over 2,900 theaters as we enter a post-Thanksgiving weekend that just might be an improvement over recent years. Typically this weekend results in the top twelve earning around $75 million or so with a recent low of $67 million in 2011 and as much as $91 million in 2009. Call me bullish, but with The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 2 and The Good Dinosaur looking at weekend totals north of $20 million and the likelihood of a strong hold from Creed, I'm expecting closer to $90 million for the top twelve.

The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 2 topped the Thanksgiving weekend box office holding off all newcomers, which included Pixar's newest release, The Good Dinosaur. The weekend doesn't end with Katniss Everdeen's repeat effort, however, as Warner Bros. finally has something to brag about once again with the impressive opening of Creed while Fox's Victor Frankenstein becomes one of the worst wide release openings of all-time.

The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 2 enters its second weekend amid a flurry of opinions when it comes to its $102.6 million opening weekend. It also faces much stiffer competition this Thanksgiving weekend than Part 1 did a year ago, which only had Penguins of Madagascar to contend with, while Part 2 not only faces a new Pixar release in The Good Dinosaur, but also Creed, which has been (rightfully) well-received. All will be competing for holiday eyeballs when folks aren't stuffing their faces, taking in football and parades or knocking each other out for Black Friday deals.

The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 2 opened $20 million below Part 1, but with an estimated opening weekend of $101 million it becomes the fifth 2015 release to open above the century mark. It's tough to call a film that opens north of $100 million a flop (because it's not), but "disappointing" seems appropriate given the lofty heights previous installments reached. Theories as to what happened are easy enough to conjure up and most likely they all played some kind of role in why this fourth installment in what, effectively, is a three film franchise couldn't even match the opening of its predecessor.

FRIDAY UPDATE: The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 2 brought in $16 million from Thursday night screenings, which began at 7PM. The film brought in $43 million worldwide, and was #1 in 66 of 68 markets with 19 more territories opening today, including China and Mexico.

Three new films cracked the weekend top ten, but last weekend's two new releases repeated at the top of the box office by a large margin. Both Spectre and The Peanuts Movie enjoyed strong holds from last weekend with the new James Bond film fairing especially well, enjoying the smallest second weekend franchise drop since Casino Royale, pushing the new title over $130 million. It was the holiday comedy Love the Coopers ranking highest among the newcomers, but the Bollywood film Prem Ratan Dhan Payo carried over its record-breaking India debut into a top ten finish domestically. Meanwhile Angelina Jolie's By the Sea hardly even registered in its ten theater debut as the weekend itself was down 34.9%. Adam Sandler

Spectre's $70.4 million opening last weekend was the seventh largest of 2015 and this weekend it faces little to no incoming competition. The week's new wide releases include the Chilean miner drama The 33, the Christmas-themed family feature Love the Coopers and the period, football drama My All American. Not one of these three new wide releases will be threatening the top two spots at the box office, which means the second weekend of Spectre and The Peanuts Movie draw the majority of our attention.

Coming off the worst October since 2007, the industry was looking to this weekend to turn the tide and that it did. With the release of Spectre and The Peanuts Movie, the weekend showed a 148% increase over last weekend and a 6% improvement over the same weekend last year with the top twelve making over $155 million. Of that total, 007, Charlie Brown, Snoopy and the gang accounted for 76% as November 2015 is off to a good start. Ridley Scott

Thursday Preshow Update: Spectre kicked the weekend off with Thursday preshow screenings in 3,221 theaters where it brought in $5.25 million. Comparing to Skyfall's Thursday performance is tough considering Skyfall played in only 463 IMAX and premium large format theaters on Thursday where it grossed $2.2 million. Skyfall followed that performance up with an additional $2.4 million from midnight screenings before going wide on Friday. Considering the circumstances, even though that only adds up to $4.6 million, some might say it's actually a more impressive performance given the difference in theater count.

For the third weekend in a row the conversation concerns new films failing to meet expectations, though this Halloween weekend in particular is even more dire. With newcomers Burnt and Our Brand is Crisis falling well below even the most pessimistic of predictions, this was the worst weekend of 2015 yet with the top twelve tallying an estimated $62 million. That's $3.8 million below the first weekend in September when War Room topped the box office in its second weekend in release with only $9.4 million. However, in more positive news, Sony reports Spectre is breaking records left and right as it hits theaters overseas. Let's get to it... David Gordon Green

Last year, the top twelve films tallied a mere $79.9 million over the final weekend in October. It was the sixth worst weekend of 2014. Looking over the list of newcomers hitting theaters this weekend—Burnt, Our Brand is Crisis and Scouts Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse—and the lackluster returns of last week's new releases, it appears this weekend's top twelve will be even worse by about $10 million.

The Martian and Goosebumps swap spots at the top of this weekend's box office, and Steven Spielberg's Bridge of Spies settles into third. Despite four new wide releases, the 43rd weekend of 2015 looks a lot like the 42nd as none of the new releases could muster any better than fourth place. As a result, the top twelve was down 7.4% from last year when Ouija managed to bring in the genre audience this weekend's offerings failed to deliver. Ridley Scott

This weekend sees four new wide releases hitting theaters, plus the nationwide expansion of Steve Jobs, all on the heels of last weekend's four new releases, making for an October box office bottleneck. Goosebumps looks like a solid holdover, hoping to repeat at #1. In its way is The Last Witch Hunter, which should top the weekend, taking advantage of the timeframe and Vin Diesel's Furious fame. Additional new releases include the latest installment in the Paranormal Activity franchise, which finds Paramount taking a shot at a new release strategy while Rock the Kasbah and Jem and the Holograms feast on the scraps.

Sony was very conservative with their predictions for Goosebumps before the weekend even began. Even after it brought in $600,000 from Thursday night preshows they held firm saying the children's horror was tracking for a $12-15 million opening. While the film fell well shy of my $31.5 million prediction, it did manage enough to top the weekend box office in a weekend that saw four new wide releases hit the marketplace, none of which managed to truly breakout.

As Halloween approaches, Sony will forgo cinematic blood and guts and, instead, bring a children's horror story to theaters this weekend with the release of Goosebumps. Made for a reported $58 million, the adaptation of the classic children's horror stories from author R.L. Stine turns the writer into the leading character, played by Jack Black. The film enters its first frame in a crowded marketplace, but each of this week's new films appear to have their own target demographic. Goosebumps just so happens to serve the widest audience and represents the largest theater count among the four new wide releases.