As you will probably know, a film called THE HUNGER GAMES opened across the globe on Friday of last week to much critical and fan acclaim (read our review here). We all expected the film to do very well, and indeed very well it did; to the tune of $155 million in box-office green in its homeland, North America. That makes the film the third biggest opening of all time and indeed the highest opening for a non-sequel in the US and Canada…ever. Only THE DARK KNIGHT ($158 M) and HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS PART 2 ($169 M) took more in their first three days, and they were both highly anticipated follow-ups to previous films that already had a large audience.
So, THE HUNGER GAMES shoved the previous number three opener, SPIDER-MAN 3, out of the way (that film took $151 M for Sony Pictures on its debut), and indeed into fourth spot on the all-time chart. THE TWILIGHT SAGA: NEW MOON rounds out the all time top five movie openers Stateside with $144 M taken in its first three days.
Internationally, THG bagged another $59.3 from other markets, including the UK, sending its total take to a little over $214 million…
It’s estimated that THE HUNGER GAMES cost around $60 million to make.
“The first movie in a franchise, to post a number like this, is really insane. There is no other word for it,” said Phil Contrino, editor of Boxoffice.com.
“‘Harry Potter’ had seven movies before it got to that point, and ‘Dark Knight’ had years and years of building the Batman brand. This movie comes and hangs with them in the same league,” Contrino said.
The next two novels in THE HUNGER GAMES series are pretty certain, and indeed bankable hits for Lions Gate, whose shares went up by nearly 4% today. Great news for a relatively small Hollywood studio…
Source: Various
