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May the Odds Be Ever in Your Favor

The Hunger Games Sets Opening Weekend Records, We Are Barely Surprised

by Jamie Frevele | 12:55 pm, March 25th, 2012


Considering how The Hunger Games was already setting records and selling tons of tickets before it had even opened, it is not exactly a shock that the Lionsgate flick is now setting box office records after finally hitting theaters after all this nail-biting anticipation. But we didn’t have to tell you guys that this movie was going to be huge. After all, a lot of you were probably responsible for all those pre-sale tickets, weren’t you? We don’t blame you. Just finding a parking spot last night was like a trip to the arena, save for the makeover and waxing.

Box Office Mojo had been predicting big numbers for the adaptation of Suzanne Collins‘ best-selling novel (which are setting records for Kindle sales all by themselves), and since the movie opened up at midnight last week, the numbers have been pouring in. Before we had those numbers, though, the site was predicting a $135 million opening weekend — right now, the site is guessing more like $155,000:

That’s considering how many screens will be showing the movie — 10,000 in 4,137 theaters — and that will place The Hunger Games right up there among other box office behemoths like The Dark Knight and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2. Following just its midnight premiere, it had made $19.74 million, ranking seventh behind Harry Potter and Twilight movies, and giving it the best midnight showing for a non-sequel. (And, for those keeping score, beating the first Twilight movie by almost three times the $7 million that movie made after its midnight premiere.) Its total for the entire day on Friday was $68.25 million, making it the fifth largest opening day ever, the best for a non-sequel, besting Alice in Wonderland.

As for opening weekends, the movie it’s looking to knock out of the arena is still Alice in Wonderland, the current record-holder for a non-sequel with a $116 million weekend total. And it looks like it might just blow that out of the water, also setting a record for the most successful March opening.

Something helping The Hunger Games besides its built-in book-reading audience: very positive reviews. People are excited about this movie because it’s not just another tween franchise — it’s appealing to a much bigger audience, and it is a well-made movie. Right now, it’s rating an 86 percent “fresh rating” by critics on Rotten Tomatoes, as well as a 95 percent “fresh” rating by moviegoers. So, expect word of mouth to carry this movie into even bigger numbers going into next week.

In case you missed it, or you are simply not convinced, or you just depend on The Mary Sue for reviews (which is very kind of you), here is our review of The Hunger Games.

(via Box Office Mojo)

Previously in The Hunger Games

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  • http://twitter.com/Googolbyte Kieron George

    Why! why? why didn’t they split it in two, and give it room to breath. For what it is it was amazing but it could of been so much more.

  • http://twitter.com/Super_Widget Joanna

    Totally agree, though the first movie would have been very slow.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Kaarel-Jakobson/100000313100671 Kaarel Jakobson

    I’ve neither read the books nor watched the movie yet, but I’m glad that a franchise with a female lead that isn’t Twilight is doing so well. Hopefully, this will make some kind of point to Hollywood.

  • Anonymous

    Seeing it tomorrow. No idea what to expect to be honest although it has had some good reviews. I hadn’t even heard of The Hunger Games until it was mentioned (repeatedly) on this site. I blame you all.

  • http://melancholywise.tumblr.com/ Sophie

    I’m really hoping for this too. I mean surely surely those Hollywood executives can’t look at these numbers and still carry on with the tired line ‘Female led films make no money’. That said, if being a comic book fan has taught me anything it’s that sexism trumps profit nine times out of ten.

  • http://twitter.com/SylviaSybil Sylvia

    They’ll declare it a fluke. Or they’ll say it worked because of the male co-stars, or the imax release, or anything else that they’ll say “compensated” for the drawback of a female lead…anything to avoid acknowledging that female leads can actually earn as much as male.

  • Anonymous

    Happy to be part of that number! I had no expectations for the movie except a vague idea of the premise and it really delivered. Also really excited to see a lady protagonist that’s not dominated by romance. Hollywood, please take notes!

  • http://melancholywise.tumblr.com/ Sophie

    *Sigh* quite possibly. But there are a few female led films that look really good this year (this, Brave, Snow White and the Huntsman) maybe it’s getting better. Goodness knows we need all the female positive things we can get right now. 

  • John Wao

    I’ll be there this coming Friday. I didn’t want to get trampled by a million budding archers.

  • http://twitter.com/briecs Brianna Sheldon

    I loved it. I thought it was very well done and it was fantastic to see a genuine, feminine, but not woobie, heroine.

  • http://www.facebook.com/raniedaysandnights Ranie Michele Carver

    With everything they put into it splitting it in two would have just drug it out. There isn’t a reason for it to be in two, the book didn’t have that much. It would have been a flop honestly. Mockingjay is set to be the only film of the book trilogy that will be in two parts. 

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