The Hunger Games grossed an impressive $152.536M from 4,137 theaters over the weekend ($36,871 per theater average), putting the film at #3 on the all-time opening weekend charts (behind “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2″ at $169.189M and “The Dark Knight” at $158.411M) and setting a new record for a non-sequel and March release (held previously by 2010’s “Alice in Wonderland” at $116.101M). The Gary Ross-directed adaptation of the popular Suzanne Collins novel opened on Friday to $67.263M, eased 25% on Saturday to $50.394M and declined a further 31% on Sunday to $34.878M. The opening day figure ranks 5th all-time and includes an estimated $19.7M from midnight screenings (a non-sequel record and 7th all-time). The film played on 268 IMAX screens which accounted for $10.2M of the film’s gross.
Budgeted at just $78M, The Hunger Games added $59.25M from foreign markets for a worldwide opening weekend of $211.786M.
Rounding out the top five at the box office this weekend were: 21 Jump Street (#2 – $20.471M / $70.223M total); Dr. Seuss’ The Lorax (#3 – $13.182M / $177.412M total); John Carter (#4 – $5.074M / $62.407M total) and Act of Valor (#5 – $2.041M / $65.921M total).
Source: Box Office Mojo
