| Date | |
|---|---|
| Author | DCM |
| Categories | cinemabox OfficeExhibitor News |
The Hunger Games caught fire this weekend, heating up the top of the box office with the third biggest Friday to Sunday opening weekend of the year. Including Thursday previews, Catching Fire opened with £12.2m (£2.1m of that from previews). That puts it just behind Iron Man 3 (£11.4m) and Man Of Steel (£11.2m) in the biggest Friday to Sunday openings of the year. It’s also over double the opening weekend of The Hunger Games (£4.9m) in March 2012.
After two sensational weekends, Gravity dropped to second, falling 51% to £2.4m and a cume of £19.4m. That means it has overtaken The Hangover Part III to place tenth on the list of 2013’s biggest films. There’s still more to come too.
Also on the sci-fi front, Rentrak announced today that they will now be reporting Event Cinema in all of their UK & Ireland reports and as a result, third place in the top 15 this week was taken by Doctor Who: The Day Of The Doctor, which grossed a hugely impressive £1.8m during the 50th anniversary celebrations on Saturday. In fourth spot, Thor: The Dark World fell 59% to £723k with its impressive cume of £18.5 surpassing the first Iron Man’s final total of £17.4m.
One of the weekend’s most impressive performers was The Butler, which fell just 23% to £614k and now has a cume of £2m. Two other new entries were The Family in eighth with £445k (including £3.4k from previews) and Palme d’Or winner Blue Is The Warmest Colour with £142k (including £8k from previews). The box office is up 35% from the same weekend last year – that’s the first time that’s happened since 20 September.
Across the pond, Catching Fire's gargantuan $161.1m opening is slightly higher than the original Hunger Games’ $152m debut last March. It's also ahead of the three Twilight sequels that opened in November over the last few years. Thor: The Dark World was in a distant second with $14.1m for a cume of $167.8m.
Last week’s surprise hit, The Best Man Holiday fell 58% to $12.5m and now has a cume of $50.4m. Vince Vaughn comedy Delivery Man failed to actually deliver with just $8.2m. Free Birds rounded out the Top Five with $5.3m and to date has earned $48.6m.
