Film News: ‘The Hunger Games’ Dominates at Box Office, Sets Records

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CHICAGO – The games have begun, and the box office numbers are ever in “The Hunger Games” favor. The new film, an adaptation of the first book in Suzanne Collins Hunger Games trilogy, set box office records all weekend, and has been estimated to earn $155 million at the box office when Sunday’s showings play themselves out. That total is good enough for number three all time at weed box offices, just behind “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2” ($169.2 mil) and “The Dark Knight” ($158.4 mil).

The $155 million gross makes “The Hunger Games” the top weekend box office for a non-sequel film, destroying the old number one “Alice in Wonderland,” which made $116.1 million back in 2010. It should also be noted that “Alice,” as well as “Deathly Hallows Part 2” were both offered in 3D, boosting their box office totals a bit too. If the estimate holds true, “The Hunger Games” beat out every “Twilight” “Spider-Man” “Pirates of the Caribbean” and “Transformers” film…no easy task. Consider this as well: “The Hunger Games” beat out seven of the eight “Harry Potter” films; the cornerstone of book to film franchises.

Lionsgate has previously said that they have all of the actors and actresses under contract if they decide to make the sequels to “The Hunger Games,” but that they were waiting to see what kind of numbers the first film would get before making the next film adaptation, “Catching Fire.” With a box office record, the third highest weekend in history, and a gross that doubled the budget of the film in one weekend, I think it is safe to say that we will be seeing “Catching Fire” on the big screen in the near future.

Keep up to date with HollywoodChicago.com tomorrow as we will bring the actual total for “The Hunger Games,” as well as the rest of the top ten (there were other films in theaters this weekend) as soon as the numbers come in.

HollywoodChicago.com staff writer Tim Martens

By TIM MARTENS
Staff Writer
HollywoodChicago.com
tim@hollywoodchicago.com

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