Given that its predecessor opened to $152 million and went on to gross $408 million in America alone, it’s a shock to no one that The Hunger Games: Catching Fire claimed the top spot this weekend. It took $161.1 million over the three-day period, which is a slightly higher opening than the first, while also shattering a few other records: it’s the highest November opening, the highest opening for a 2D-only film, and the fourth highest opening overall (behind two Avengers films and a Harry Potter). The final record might not hold, as it’s only $250,000 ahead of the next highest 2D-only opener (The Dark Knight Rises), but second place still wouldn’t be bad. Though the opening is impressive, it’s unlikely Catching Fire will hit the same overall gross as its predecessor – the original film opened in a relatively uncrowded March market, whereas the sequel is opening right at the cusp of Thanksgiving and the Christmas/Oscar movie season. A $300 million-range gross is more likely.
The only other major release this weekend was the Vince Vaughn-fronted comedy Delivery Man, and audiences, as they have with the last few Vince Vaughn-fronted comedies, have voiced their distaste, as the film opened at number 4 with $8.2 million, one of the lowest openings for a Vaughn film to date (even The Watch, which got terrible reviews, managed $12 million in its opening frame). Vaughn hasn’t had a film top $100 million since Couple’s Retreat in 2009 and The Internship was a flop earlier this year, although only part of it can be attributed to audience distaste in the star/premise – several star-driven movies this fall have had weak box office performances, including The Counselor and Runner Runner.
On the indie side, the Judi Dench/Steve Coogan-starring Philomena opened to $133,700 in 4 locations, a good debut before its expansion later this week. Disney’s Frozen opened on a single screen in L.A. and racked up $238,000, and will likely be a huge success as it opens wide for the Thanksgiving holiday. And in older releases, last week’s numbers 1 and 2, Thor: The Dark World and The Best Man Holiday, moved to numbers 2 and 3 and lost 61 and 58 percent in their audiences, respectively and as expected. Thor has now made $167 million and The Best Man Holiday has made $50 million.
Source: BoxOfficeMojo
