The Hunger Games: Mockingjay, Part 2 is the lowest-grossing entry in the Lionsgate franchise with $652 million worldwide (over $100 million less than what Part 1 earned).

During a call with Wall Street analysts Friday, the studio -- whose stocks took a tumble after it announced weaker than expected Q3 earnings -- blamed the release of Star Wars: The Force Awakens and the Paris terrorist attack last November for the film's "softer than anticipated" performance at the box office. (Mockingjay, Part 2 opened in November.)

“I think the combination of circumstances was unique between the terrorist attack in Europe and Star Wars,” said Rob Friedman, Lionsgate’s co-chairman of the Motion Picture Group, according to Deadline.


Friedman added that The Force Awakens' record-shattering box office run “hit our numbers by somewhere between $50M and $100M.”

According to THR, Lionsgate also blamed Mockingjay 2's underperformance in the increasingly vital Chinese marketplace to overcrowding.


The studio likely doesn't want to acknowledge that perhaps it was the quality of Mockingjay, Part 2 that impacted its grosses