Official Friday estimates are in and The Hunger Games has opened with a strong $68.2 million, which includes the $19.7 million midnight and has people talking about a $135-145 million weekend. Such a result would have it eying a top five, all-time best opening, but it will have to top The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 1‘s $138.1 million to do it.
The Hollywood Reporter adds the film earned an “A CinemaScore overall on Friday night, with those under the age of 25 giving it a glowing A+ and those over the age of 25 an A-.” Grades like that suggest it will have some legs thanks primarily to the fact it isn’t only being seen by one singular audience such as the Twilight films, considering it is appealing to a larger demographic. As such, Saturday and Sunday’s numbers should be interesting and also make it difficult to determine just how high this film will be able to go.
The rest of the top ten is hardly as interesting, but 21 Jump Street looks like it will hit somewhere around $20 million, which would mean a solid 45% dip from its #1 opening weekend of $36.3 million.
And then, Deadline has the faith-based film October Baby in sixth bringing in $605,000 on Friday from 398 theaters. I hadn’t heard of the film before this morning, but based on those numbers it should be able to secure a spot in the top ten. I added the film to the database and learned it actually was released in 14 theaters for three weeks last October where it made $199,442. Clearly some planned church group outings earned it a bit more dough this weekend. You can watch the trailer here.
I’ve included Friday’s estimated top ten directly below and will be back on Sunday with a complete wrap-up.
Based on what you see here, how high do you think Hunger Games will go now? It’s halfway to $132 million, but Friday will always be front-loaded so we have to taper it back for Saturday and Sunday… how far back is the question.
- The Hunger Games – $68.2 million
- 21 Jump Street – $6.2 million
- Dr. Seuss’ The Lorax – $3.2 million
- John Carter – $1.3 million
- Project X – $625,000
- October Baby – $605,000
- Act Of Valor – $570,000
- A Thousand Words – $529,000
- Safe House – $392,000
- This Means War – $325,000
