2013 Nov 30

Box Office: ‘Catching Fire’ Surges Friday for $482.3 Million Global Total

The “Hunger Games” sequel and animated family film “Frozen” — coming in No. 2 — are turning in the best Thanksgiving performances of all time.

Holiday moviegoers remained ravenous for The Hunger Games: Catching Fire on Friday, putting the sequel on course to score one of the best second weekends in the history of the film business, not accounting for inflation.

The Lionsgate pic grossed $31.3 million from 4,163 theaters for a domestic total of $253.3 million and stunning global haul of $482.3 million. If traffic holds at these levels, Catching Fire is poised to gross $110 million-plus for the five-day Thanksgiving stretch (Wednesday-Sunday) and $75 million-plus for the weekend itself in North America.

Costing $130 million to produce, Catching Fire could edge out Avatar ($75.6 million) and The Dark Knight ($75.2 million) to boast the top second weekend (three-day) on record after The Avengers ($103.1 million).

Disney’s 3D animated entry Frozen, opening Wednesday, also continued to soar, grossing $26.9 million from 3,742 locations for a three-day domestic total of $53.5 million and projected five-day debut in the $93 million range.

Loosely based on Hans Christian Andersen’s classic fairy tale The Snow Queen, Frozen — earning a coveted A+ CinemaScore — tells the story of a fearless princess (Kristen Bell) who sets off on an epic journey to find her sister, whose icy powers have caused an eternal winter. Last weekend, the 3D pic, costing $150 million to make, did big business when it played exclusively at Disney’s El Capitan Theatre in Hollywood.

Between them, Frozen and Catching Fire are serving up a record-breaking Thanksgiving. Frozen is poised to score the top holiday debut of all time, eclipsing the $80.1 million five-day debut of Pixar’s Toy Story 2 in 1999. It’s also destined to score the top opening for a Disney Animation Studios title, besting the $68.7 million debut of Tangled over Thanksgiving in 2010.

Catching Fire, now in its second weekend, will mark the top-grossing Thanksgiving film of any movie, topping previous record-holder Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone ($82.4 million). It also nabbed the best gross ever for Thanksgiving day — $14.9 million from 4,163 theaters — besting the $13.1 million earned by Toy Story 2.

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