Box Office Motion

Topics: box office, Hunger Games, Lions Gate, news, Wrath Of The Titans

The Lions Gate Entertainment film “The Hunger Games” continues to beat out the competition following its record setting opening last week when it became the third highest debut ever and the biggest ever debut for a non-sequel.

 

The Hunger Games scored another $95.8 million in ticket sales around the world this weekend, pushing its tally to $365 million. Exit polls show the film has legs, with an impressive 13 percent of movie goers who saw the movie this weekend coming back for second servings. International ticket sales for the blockbuster clocked in at $34.8 million this weekend.

 

This weekend The Hunger Games saw its domestic sales fall to $61 million according to studio estimates, a 60 percent drop compared to last week, but Lions Gate Entertainment executive David Spitz said this kind of decline in subsequent weeks is consistent with those seen by other big, and proven, movie franchises like the Harry Potter films or Twilight. Spitz, executive vice president of domestic distribution for Lions Gate, said “That shows the staying power of the film. Word of mouth is clearly taking hold.”

 

“The Hunger Games”, a story about a post-apocalyptic America where teens battle to the death in an annual televised competition, ranks as the seventh highest of all movies in terms of ticket sales as of its second weekend, according to Box Office Mojo.

 

The Hunger Games got slammed overseas by “Wrath of the Titans”, starring Sam Worthington and Liam Neeson, which bought in a whopping $112 million in ticket sales. Hunger Games easily beat out Titan’s domestic tally, which reached only $34.2 million. “Wrath of the Titans”, starring Sam Worthington and Liam Neeson, is a story about Perseus, the demi-God son of Zeus, who battles Ares and Hades in the underworld sea to rescue his father.

 

“Wrath of the Titans” may be raking it in overseas but movie aggregation website www.rottentomaoes.com and critics are not impressed. Titans earns an “unfresh” or thumbs down rating of 24% at rotten tomatoes and movie critic Roger Ebert expresses disdain at its unrealistic special effects and lack of characters moviegoers will be interested in.

 

Ebert wonders out loud, in his two star review of “Wrath of the Titans”, “how the [3D] movie might have played with a more traditional approach. You know. Literate, concise dialogue. Characters we care about, with relationships that have meaning for us. Action set pieces with well established special boundaries. You know. That kind of stuff.”

 

Worthington is best known for his performance in “Avatar” (2009), “Terminator Salvation” (2009), and “Clash of the Titans” (2010). Irish actor Liam Neeson, placed at number 69 on Empire Magazine’s list of the top 100 actors of all time, may be best known for “Schindler’s List” (1993), “Star Wars Episode 1” (1999), and “Darkman” (1990).

Sources:
Reuters
IMDB
Roger Ebert
Wikipedia
YouTube