Remember a couple of weeks ago, when I said that The Hunger Games was tracking at Harry Potter/Twilight levels? Well, The Hunger Games was released on Friday (quick note: I saw it yesterday, and I bloody loved it. Well done to all involved.), and the opening weekend numbers have come in.
First, there were the midnight screenings on Friday, which earned a cool $17 million. Then the opening day stats came in: $68 million domestically. And now the full numbers for the opening weekend are in. Prepare to goggle at just how much it made. Or just stare, baffled at what I just said. (I don’t blame you). Domestically, The Hunger Games made a whopping $155 million.
That’s the box-office record for a non-sequel, and it’s the third best opening weekend of all time, behind The Dark Knight and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2. If you know how much those movies made ($1 billion and $1.3 billion respectively), then you can hazard a guess at how much The Hunger Games will eventually make. Loads.
And when you factor in the overseas (which also made a lot, but not as much as in the US) figures, that reaches a massive $215 million. Yup.
So, it looks like Lionsgate have the next big franchise on their hands. With the sequel, Catching Fire set for a November 22, 2013 release and the final book in the series, Mockingjay scheduled to be split into two parts over 2014 and 2o15, prepare for a lot more Hunger Games over the next half-decade.
S#!T Talking Central