'hunger Games' Serves Up Huge Opening Day At $68m

Hollywood blockbusters appeared poised last year to take over China’s box office, but something unexpected happened on the way to the bank: demand tapered off sharply.    

The weekend was very kind to last week’s one and only new release, Oblivion. Otherwise, the charts have remained more or less static since last weekend. Oblivion did quite well in the box office, making over $38.1 million; while this is at the bottom end of its predicted range for its opening weekend gross, it’s still a respectable sum, and the film can probably expect similarly impressive numbers in later weeks. read more

It won't be out until November, but The Hunger Games: Catching Fire is one of the most highly anticipated sequels of the year, so Lionsgate isn't wasting any time whetting audiences' appetites with trailers. To that end, the studio opted to release its first Catching Fire clip last night (April 14) during the 2013 MTV Movie Awards, ensuring plenty of film fans' eyeballs would be trained to the tube when Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence) and Peeta Mellark (Josh Hutcherson) embarked on the victory tour they earned after emerging victorious in The Hunger Games. read more

Both of last week’s new releases did very well in the box office this weekend—even despite the arguably vast disparity in quality between the two releases. Making the top of the charts is 42, which outdid its modest expectations (even for a heartwarming based-on-a-true-story yarn), earning revenues in the ballpark (ha) of $27.2 million on its opening weekend. read more

Not only did this last week introduce abnormally well-received new releases, but these releases continued the streak with admirable box office numbers, as well. read more