Hunger Games Has Biggest Opening for Non-Sequel
Scores third-biggest weekend with an estimated $155 million, beating out Twilight.
| Posted Sunday, March 25, 2012, at 1:19 PM
Photo by Valerie Macon/Getty Images
UPDATE: Beating even the most optimistic projections, it looks like The Hunger Games is set to rack up $155 million in its opening weekend. That makes it the third all-time biggest opening weekend, behind Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 and The Dark Knight, reports the Wrap.
That means The Hunger Games beat the best opener of the Twilight films. And that’s without counting the box office outside the United States and Canada, which Lionsgate is estimating at $59.25 million for a grand total of $214.25 million, reports Deadline.
Saturday, March 24: The movie everyone seems to be talking about is shattering all sorts of records. It made $68 million at the box office Friday, including $19.7 million from midnight showings, reports Entertainment Weekly. It marks the best opening day ever for a non-sequel. By a huge amount. Looking at the list of best opening days, the next highest-grossing non-sequel was Alice in Wonderland that got $40.8 million.
The Hunger Games sits at number five in the list of best opening days. It is expected that the movie will make more than $132 million this weekend with some predicting a weekend that could top $140 million. If it manages to gross more than $142.8 million, it will beat Twilight Saga: New Moon, which is at number four on the list of biggest opening weekends.
Over at Deadline Hollywood, Nikki Finke explains the film’s success by noting that it has moved beyond its base of audience of teenagers who might have read the books. With critics as well as audiences giving the film high marks, the studio gas good reason to believe the movie will continue to do well beyond the opening weekend, notes the Wrap.
