The numbers at this week's box office in the Northern America could change tomorrow but currently, Liosgate's cash crown-jewel 'The Hunger Games' registered itself on the record book as the third biggest box office opening weekend record of all time. With a huge turnout, 'The Hunger Games' scored an eye-popping $155 million for the first 3 days - an amount which also included Thursday midnight gross of $19.74 million. With the total three days number, 'The Hunger Games' beat 2007's third Spider-Man movie ($151 million) to claim the third place. Only the last Harry Potter installment ($169 million) and 'The Dark Knight' ($158 million) out-grossed it.
Lionsgate is tracking 'The Hunger Games' with a small Friday-to-Sunday drops about 25 to 30%, the somewhat same ranges used by Warner Bros to track 'The Dark Knight'. Considering that it is the first movie in the trilogy, this number will no doubt translated as a huge success for the mid-level studio. 'The Hunger Games' opened with $19.74 million for the midnight period which saw extensions for 3AM showtimes to meet the upfront demand. It closed the first day account with a mammoth $68 million to rank fifth in overall opening day record. If Lionsgate trajectory remains until the actual report is out, the grosses for Saturday and Sunday were indeed magnificent. Eventually, the three days gross raised the pic up to the third place; even blazing ahead all four of the 'Twilight' movies which many attempted to compare those with this.
With audiences awarding 'The Hunger Games' with the rating of A, the movie will definitely benefited from some excellent word-of-mouth. The opening gross also marked some magnificent figures with theater count at 4,137 and a hot blazing average of $37,467. The total also eclipsed the total gross for the next top nine films in the box office chart.
Last week's champ '21 Jump Street' retreated a respectable 41% to $21.3 million for a total $71 million so far. It will definitely reach $100 million at the end of the run giving star Channing Tatum a second in a row nine-digit hits following 'The Vow'. Then, you have the rest of the box office looks something like this:
| Rank | Title | Weekend Gross ($) | Change (%) | Total Gross ($) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | THE HUNGER GAMES | 155,000,000 | NEW | 155,000,000 |
| 2 | 21 JUMP STREET | 21,300,000 | -41.3 | 71,051,000 |
| 3 | DR SEUSS' THE LORAX | 13,100,000 | -42.5 | 177,300,000 |
| 4 | JOHN CARTER | 5,014,000 | -63.1 | 62,347,000 |
| 5 | ACT OF VALOR | 2,062,000 | -44.8 | 65,942,000 |
| 6 | PROJECT X | 1,950,000 | -51.8 | 51,752,000 |
| 7 | A THOUSAND WORDS | 1,925,000 | -47.0 | 14,926,000 |
| 8 | OCTOBER BABY | 1,718,000 | NEW | 1,718,000 |
| 9 | SAFE HOUSE | 1,400,000 | -48.5 | 122,600,000 |
| 10 | JOURNEY 2: THE MYSTERIOUS ISLAND | 97,155,000 | -42.5 | 70,928,000 |
| 11 | CASA DE MI PADRE | 1,10,000 | -51.9 | 3,948,000 |
| 12 | THIS MEANS WAR | 1,000,000 | -53.3 | 52,285,000 |