Weekend Box-Office: The Hunger Games Certainly Not Starving After Record-Breaking Win
And they say no one reads anymore…well, people were certainly lining up to catch the big screen debut of The Hunger Games, based on the best-selling young adult novels. Even concerns about violent content weren’t enough to dissuade audiences and critics alike from giving it the best opening ever for a film that wasn’t a sequel or prequel to another film, with $152.5 million in domestic revenue (Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2 still holds the all-time opening weekend with $169.1 million). It blew away any and all competition, with second place going to 21 Jump Street. While profitable, 21 Jump Street can’t match the projected success of The Hunger Games, dropping to $20.5 million, while Dr. Seuss’ The Lorax held onto third with only $13.2 million (though at $177.4 million in domestic revenue, it’s a rousing success…even if its four-week totals are only slightly better than The Hunger Games’ one week).
John Carter could’ve used a weekend like that, but it’ll have to rely on foreign gross to make it work…the $250 million budgeted blockbuster’s drop to $5.1 million this weekend would normally puts its three-week domestic total of $62.4 million into bomb territory, but outside the U.S. it has performed admirably, if not spectacularly, with $172.1 million. However, the word bomb CAN apply to sixth-place finisher A Thousand Words. Eddie Murphy’s long-delayed comedy still ranks among the worst-reviewed movies of all-time, and it carries over into its earnings…slightly under $2 million this weekend and $14 million in domestic (and as it turns out, overall) totals, the $40 million budget seems a long way away. Right in between, both in terms of standings and success, Act of Valor, earned over $2 million this weekend and a solid $65.9 million domestically.
Project X, Safe House, and Journey 2: The Mysterious Island declined along expected lines ($1.9 million, slightly above $1.4 million, and slightly below $1.4 million respectively), but Safe House and Journey 2 fell to ninth and tenth behind the debut of October Baby. Whether or not the film’s release was timed to coincide with recent political hot buttons issues, the faith-based film about a young woman’s discovery that she survived an abortion didn’t spark too much in terms of ticket sales…if its $1 million budget is to be believed, it turned a profit over the weekend, but not by much with $1.7 million.
Weekend Box-Office (March 23rd – March 25th)
- The Hunger Games…$152.5 million
- 21 Jump Street…$20.5 million
- Dr. Seuss’ The Lorax…$13.2 million
- John Carter…$5.1 million
- Act of Valor…$2 million
- A Thousand Words…$2 million
- Project X…$1.9 million
- October Baby…$1.7 million
- Safe House…$1.4 million
- Journey 2: The Mysterious Island …$1.4 million
Seth Paul
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