The Weekend Box Office: ‘The Hunger Games’ Destroys Competition

Who would have guessed that a film based on a popular novel would break records at the box office? Apparently, most people, as “The Hunger Games” dominated this past weekend, debuting with over $152 million at the box office, which ranks third all-time behind “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2” and “The Dark Knight”. Sony Pictures’ “21 Jump Street” dropped 43 percent in its second weekend with just over $20 million, which put the film at second place this past weekend.

Hit the jump for a rundown of this week’s box office results.

“The Hunger Games,” which is based on best-selling novel by Suzanne Collins, is set in a dystopian future and follows teens Katniss and Peeta in their struggle to survive a televised fight to the death. The film follows the “Harry Potter” and “Twilight” franchises as extremely successful films based on popular novels. “The Hunger Games” actually made more this past weekend than any of the “Twilight” films and, again, trails only the final installment of the “Harry Potter” franchise in terms of opening weekends. After under a week in theaters, “The Hunger Games” is already Lionsgate Film’s highest grossing movie of all time.

“21 Jump Street” finished a distant second place this past weekend, with $20.4 million. The Sony Pictures film finished number one last week, and has made just over $70 million during its theatrical run. At third place sits “Dr Seuss’ The Lorax” with $13.1 million, continuing its march towards the $200 million total.

Disney’s “John Carter” has performed well overseas; however, the movie (which finished fourth this past week with just over $5 million) has been nothing but a disappointment, with Disney recently announcing huge losses because of the film’s lack of North American success.

With no new Sony Pictures films releasing this week, it’s up to “21 Jump Street” to remain successful, despite the huge success of “The Hunger Games.”