Hungry for Hunger Games

From April 9, 2012

The Hunger Games, released March 23, has taken the box office by storm, earning a record $155 million in North America on opening weekend.  At the rate of this success, critics believe that "The Hunger Games" will be one of the biggest film franchises of the decade.  The film was ranked as the strongest opening weekend total for a spring release ever, replacing Tim Burton’s, Alice in Wonderland in March 2010.

            As of Easter weekend, the film earned $33.5 million, breaking the $300 million mark in 17 days, which is record time for a non-summer or non-sequel movie.  The Hunger Games has won in the box office for the third consecutive weekend, beating popular movies, American Reunion and Titanic 3D. 

From April 9, 2012

               Only two movies, “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2” and “The Dark Knight” recorded bigger opening weekends.  Both movies were sequels. 

                The film stars Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson and Liam Hemsworth.  It is based off the first of three books in Suzanne Collins series, which serves as a story about a future society, where teenagers from different districts are forced to battle to death until one remains.

From April 9, 2012

               Experts had projected $100 million opening for the film, but had no idea of the amount of success it would have for both women and men audiences, something most films cannot do.  The Twilight series, for example, draws a mostly-female crowd.

                An interesting fact about this film is that Lions Gate Entertainment is the production company for “The Hunger Games”.  This same company bought Summit Entertainment in January, which happens to have the “Twilight” series.  It is estimated that between these two movies, Lions Gate could generate over $450 million in profit. 

                 I personally saw this movie Saturday night, and have to say that it is definitely in my top five favorite movies of all time.  I bought the book Sunday and plan to read the series after seeing the movie.  It outdid my expectations, and I have already watched it for a second time.