The Hunger Games Blows Past $250 Million; Julia Roberts' MIrror Mirror Cracks
Lionsgate, Relativity Media
It's officially The Hunger Games' year.
In its second weekend at the box office, the teen-vs.-teen blockbuster became the top-grossing movie of 2012 with an estimated $61.1 million Friday-Sunday that upped its domestic total to a record-fast $251 million.
The news, meanwhile, wasn't nearly as good for Julia Roberts' Mirror Mirror.
MORE: Can The Hunger Games Oscar?
The kid-friendly take on Snow White failed to crack $20 million despite showing at more than 3,600 theaters and costing in the neighborhood of $80 million.
Showing on slighty fewer screens, Wrath of the Titans, the weekend's other major new release, grossed $34.2 million.
Mirror Mirror must hope now that families will keep it playing well through spring breakand Kristen Stewart's and Charlize Theron's upcoming Snow White and the Huntsman must trust that audiences have been waiting for the darker take on the fairytale.
Among The Hunger Games' vanquished competition, Wrath of the Titans doesand doesn'thave more to brag about than Mirror MIrror.
The sword-wielding sequel was a shadow of its predecessor, Clash of the Titans, which debuted to $61.2 million in 2010.
Overseas audiences, though, may come to the rescue. By BoxOfficeMojo.com's count, the $150 million film has grossed $112.2 million worldwide.
The Hunger Games' worldwide number, meanwhile, is a bigger, fatter $365 million.
On the domestic front, its 10-day sprint to $250 million was the fastest-ever for a nonsequel, its studio said.
Ticket sales fell 60 percent from its awesome opening weekend, but the film held better than either the final Harry Potter or the last Twilight movie.
Elsewhere, in its fourth weekend in theaters, the Ewan McGregor-Emily Blunt romance Salmon Fishing in the Yemen moved onto nearly 500 screens, and broke into Top 10.
The anti-bullying documentary Bully grossed $115,000 at five theaters for the weekend's highest per-screen average, per Exhibitor Relations stats.
Denzel Washington's Safe House dropped out of the rankings after a stellar seven-weekend, $124 million-grossing stay. The hit party flick Project X fell out, too, en route to a presumed long life as a training video.
John Carter extended its Top 10 stay to four weekends, and pushed it! s worldw ide total to $254.5 million, which would be impressive if we didn't already know how this story ends: in red ink.
Here's the complete rundown of the weekend's top movies, per Friday-Sunday domestic estimates as reported by the studios and BoxOfficeMojo.com:
(Originally published at 9:44 a.m. on April 1, 2012.)
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