Weekend box office: The Hunger Games: Catching Fire breaks records

Brad Sturdivant November 24th, 2013

Weekend box office The Hunger Games Catching Fire

There was never a question as to whether or not THE HUNGER GAMES: CATCHING FIRE would be successful, rather it was always a question of how successful. The answer is; very. To break the November weekend box office record set by THE TWILIGHT SAGA: NEW MOON, Fire will have to bring in more than that film’s $142.8 million. It’s still a little early, but right now it looks like the film will finish with just over $160 million, easily setting the November record. What’s most impressive is that Catching Fire is doing it with almost unanimously positive reviews while Twilight managed to set the record without any positive critic reviews. Of course, I’m not sure if that’s more impressive for Catching Fire or for Twilight. The other new movie of the weekend was Vince Vaughn’s DELIVERY MAN. That film didn’t fare so well and looks like it might not break the $10 million mark. It’s suffering from a very poor release date and had the film been released in the first quarter of 2014, I think it would have done much better.

Next week is Thanksgiving, which lately has become more famous for Black Friday (sadly), but the big movie of the weekend should be Disney’s FROZEN. Disney has struggled getting good reviews for their non-Pixar movies of late, but early reviews are positive for FROZEN, meaning parents will be lining up to take the little ones to it after exhausting so much energy fighting the sale crowds. However, I suspect THE HUNGER GAMES: CATCHING FIRE will still take the top spot. Note: the numbers below will be updated as they become final.

1. The Hunger Games: Catching Fire $161.1m

2. Thor: The Dark World $14.1m

3. The Best Man Holiday $12.5m

4. Delivery Man $8.2m

5. Free Birds $5.3m

6. Last Vegas $4.4m

7. Gravity $3.3m

8. Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa $2.8m

9. 12 Years A Slave $2.8m

10. Dallas Buyer’s Club $2.7m

(Deadline)