(Reuters) – Filmgoers brought big appetites for “The Hunger Games” to box offices over the
weekend as the blockbuster movie added $95.9 million in global ticket sales and pushed the worldwide total since its
record-setting debut to $365 million.
The Lions Gate Entertainment movie about teenagers forced into a deadly survival match
ranked No. 1 for the second straight weekend on domestic charts. Ticket sales in the United States and Canada reached an
estimated $61.1 million from Friday through Sunday, according to studio estimates.
At international theaters, “Hunger
Games” pulled in $34.8 million over the weekend. The massive worldwide total since the movie’s release 10 days ago reached
$364.9 million.
The film dropped 60 percent domestically from its huge opening a week ago. The decline is consistent
with the performances of other big film franchises such as “Twilight” and “Harry Potter,” said David Spitz, executive vice
president of domestic distribution for Lions Gate Entertainment.
“That shows the staying power of the film. Word of
mouth is clearly taking hold,” Spitz said.
The movie, starring Jennifer Lawrence as heroine Katniss Everdeen, opened
last weekend with $152.5 million, the third-highest domestic debut and biggest for a non-sequel.
The second-weekend
domestic tally ranked seventh-highest among all movies, according to website Box Office Mojo.
Some of the business
came from fans coming back for more. Exit polls showed 13 percent of filmgoers this weekend were repeat
customers.
TITANS RULE OVERSEAS
The “Hunger Games” craze easily beat two new films at domestic
theaters.
Action sequel “Wrath of the Titans” landed in second place, grossing $34.2 million in North America (the
United States and Canada). The movie beat “Hunger Games” overseas, where it grabbed $78 million from 60 countries and brought
the global weekend total to $112.2 million.
Warner Bros. and Legendary Pictures paid about $150 million to produce the
movie.
The film starring Sam Worthington, Liam Neeson and Ralph Fiennes is a 3D sequel to Olympian epic “Clash of the
Titans,” which debuted with $61.2 million domestically in 2010 over the Easter weekend, boosted by students home from school
on the opening Friday.
For the sequel, Warner Bros. opened the film a week earlier. The studio expects to benefit in
the days ahead from school kids on vacation, said Dan Fellman, head of domestic distribution for Warner Bros. Filmgoers under
25 rated the movie an “A-minus” in polling by CinemaScore.
Third place belonged to “Mirror Mirror,” a new
family-oriented film starring Julia Roberts as the evil queen in a comedy-and-adventure twist on the classic Snow White fairy
tale.
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The film brought in $19.0 million domestically, short of
distributor Relativity Media’s projection for a low $20-million opening. As with “Titans,” the studio hopes Easter vacations
will help boost ticket sales for “Mirror Mirror” this coming week, said Kyle Davies, Relativity’s president of worldwide
theatrical distribution. Girls under 18 gave the movie an “A” grade and boys awarded it an “A-minus” in CinemaScore
polling.
Relativity produced “Mirror Mirror” for about $85 million.
Rounding out the top five, adult comedy “21
Jump Street” hauled in $15.0 million domestically, and animated family film “Dr. Seuss’ The Lorax” grabbed $8.0
million.
Also this weekend, the documentary “Bully” about children and families bullied at school earned $115,000 at
five theaters in New York and Los Angeles, or a per-screen average of $23,000. The Weinstein Co. movie was released without a
rating after the studio objected to the “R” from a U.S. movie industry group for language, saying it would keep many kids
from seeing the film.
“Bully” will expand to about 100 theaters in roughly 50 markets on April 13, said Erik Lomis,
president of distribution for The Weinstein Co.
“Wrath of the Titans” was released by Time Warner Inc’s Warner Bros.
Privately held Relativity Media distributed “Mirror Mirror” in the United States, and Alliance Films released the movie in
Canada. The movie division of Sony Corp released “21 Jump Street,” and Comcast Corp’s Universal Pictures distributed “The
Lorax.”
(Reporting By Lisa Richwine; Editing by Bill Trott)
