Hunger Games Premiere

Hunger Games on Track for $140-$150 Million Domestic Opening Weekend

Box office analysts at first suggested The Hunger Games was tracking to open with a $70 to $80 million weekend. Then it went up to $100M. Then some guessed it might go as high as $120 to $130 Million, which would make it the largest March release ever.

Scratch all that. Forbes says the film is looking to make a mind-boggling $140 to $150 million domestically after a $19.7 million midnight opening, the highest ever for a non-sequel. Why is it doing so well? It turned out to be an amazing film, not just for fans of the books-

After scoring a sensational $19.7 million right out the gate at midnight showings Thursday/Friday, The Hunger Games never slowed down and looks sure to burn up the box office with a staggering $140 to $150 million debut. And that’s just domestic box office, folks, not counting overseas receipts.

How did The Hunger Games manage such a huge feat? Not only by being an extremely popular young adult novel, not only by have broad appeal to male and female audiences, not only by bringing in viewers of all ages, and not only by having the best marketing blitz I’ve seen in a long time. No, all of that would’ve easily given this movie a strong weekend living up to the earlier expectations, but the reason it has continued to push expectations higher and higher before exceeding them, is simply because of strong positive buzz earned by being the very best film of the year so far, hands-down.

[Forbes, pic by accicothehungergames]