'Hunger Games' Slays Box Office, Opens With $214M Worldwide

‘The Hunger Games’ makes history during its opening weekend, earning an astounding $155 million at the US box office.

Based on the best-selling young-adult book series from Suzanne Collins, The Hunger Games film stands as the highest non-summer domestic opening, beating Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland, and is the biggest debut for a non-sequel. Its opening day raked in $68.25 million, placing fifth on the all-time list behind Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 ($91.1M), New Moon ($72.7M), Breaking Dawn Part 1 ($71.6M) and Eclipse ($68.5M).  In comparison to last year, Games earned more this weekend than all films combined during the same time period.

The film, starring Jennifer Lawrence, Liam Hemsworth and Josh Hutcherson, earned a great “A” CinemaScore from audiences. What’s interesting is the exit polling that came out the viewers. According to CinemaScore, women made up 60 percent of the film’s audience on Friday, while men made 40 percent; a major difference from Twilight, whose films have a predominately 80 percent female demographic.

Top 5 Box Office – March 23, 2012

1. The Hunger Games | Weekend – $155M | Total – $155M
2. 21 Jump Street | Weekend – $21.3 | Total – $71.1M
3. Dr. Seuss’ The Lorax | $13.1M | Total – $177M
4. John Carter | Weekend – $5.01 | Total – $62.3M
5. Act of Valor | Weekend – $2.06 | Total – $65.9M