‘Catching Fire’ does just that

As predicted, records were shattered this past weekend, thanks to The Hunger Games: Catching Fire’s fantastic bow. The sequel to 2012’s Hunger Games (and we thought that film was popular) earned $161.1 million domestically and $307.7 worldwide. Here’s how it stacks up against previous cinematic and pop culture phenoms:

• Catching Fire had the highest-grossing November opening of all time. The old record-holder, The Twilight Saga: New Moon, debuted to a paltry (it’s all relative) $148.2 million.


• Catching Fire had the fourth highest-grossing opening ever. Its cume ranks just behind The Avengers’ $207.4 million, Iron Man 3’s $174.1 million, and the last Harry Potter movie’s $169.2 million.


• Katniss & Co. just barely dethroned The Dark Knight Rises, which got bumped down a peg to the No. 5 slot on the list of most successful domestic opening weekends. Knight opened to $160.9 million back in 2012.

Catching Fire is also Lionsgate’s most successful release to date. It had the 12th most lucrative international opening ever.

Some other movies made some money this weekend, too, although their stories are less uplifting. Thor: The Dark World earned $14.1 million, the most money of any film that was not Catching Fire. As its total suggests, The Dark World suffered a freefall of a drop in sales, down 61% from last week. The Best Man Holiday, last weekend’s surprise success story, also staggered, falling 58% to gross $12.5 million. While reverberations from the revolution brewing in The Hunger Games' Panem have clearly hurt the cinema’s other offerings, neither The Dark World nor Holiday has been fatally wounded. The Thor sequel will likely finish out with a little over $200 million, while The Best Man Holiday will probably top out at $75 million.

Similar reassurances cannot be made on behalf of Vince Vaughn’s latest vehicle, Delivery Man. The comedian begat a bomb with his tale of a boy-man sperm donor whose contributions result in 500+ children. Delivery Man grossed $8.2 million, less than half of each of Vaughn’s last two films, The Internship and The Dilemma. At least Vaughn can take comfort in knowing other name stars, at least those who were not christened Jennifer Lawrence, have also seen their stock fall this season. Both Runner Runner, starring Ben Affleck and Justin Timberlake, and The Counselor, whose credits read like the guest list for Vanity Fair’s Oscar party (Penelope Cruz, Cameron Diaz, Javier Bardem, Michael Fassbender, and Brad Pitt) opened to less than $10 million. Times, they are a changin’.

One thing, however, remains constant: the undeniable appeal of Judi Dench. The grand dame’s Philomena opened in four locations and earned a respectable (how could it could have been anything other than?) $133,716, or $33,429 per theatre.

Neither has Tom Hanks lost his enduring appeal. The actor’s Oscar contender Captain Phillips sailed past the $100 million domestic mark this weekend, its seventh, with no sign of slowing pace.

'Dark Knight Rises' spends a second weekend at number one

The Dark Knight Rises led the box office this weekend, dropping 60% to finish with $64 million. Overall, the box office was 25% off from the same weekend last year, though the difference comes down to many factors, including different movies, the opening of the Olympics, and the shootings at the midnight screening of the final Batman movie last Friday. The Dark Knight fell 53% its second weekend compared to the finale's 60% drop, but that can't solely be explained by the aftereffects of last week's tragedy. Internationally, The Dark Knight Rises has earned $248 million, compared to $287 million at home. That's a half-billion dollars in just two weeks.

The Ben Stiller-led comedy The Watch stumbled with a $13 million opening. Stiller's Tower Heist also underperformed earlier this year, leading some to downgrade the actor's star rating. The

'The Watch'

tale of dudes who create a neighborhood watch group that uncovers an alien invasion drew mainly males, and primarily older ones.

Attracting the exact opposite demographic--mainly females and audiences under 24--Step Up Revolution also finished with a middling result, $11.8 million. I suspect the opening of the dance film will put this franchise to bed (or turn it into a straight-to-DVD one), though the four-film run is impressive. If there's another one, it's because these movies don't cost too much, the main special effect being unknown

'Step Up Revolution'

(and modestly paid) young dancers.

Fox Searchlight's indie fantasy-romance Ruby Sparks had a solid debut in thirteen theatres, with a per-screen average of $11,700. The NC-17, violent Killer Joe averaged $12,600 per screen in three locations. Meanwhile, documentary Searching for Sugar Man debuted to $9,500 per screen in three locations, a less promising debut--though I certainly expect strong word-of-mouth for this astonishing true story.

Further up in the rankings, in tenth, twelfth, and thirteenth place, are this summer's indie successes. Moonrise Kingdom placed tenth in its tenth week, earning $1.3 million and holding strong to its placement at the bottom of the top ten. It's been ninth or tenth for six of its ten weeks. In twelfth is Woody Allen's To Rome with Love, accruing another $1 million in its sixth week. Southern-set Beasts of the Southern Wild, the newbie of the bunch, grabbed $914,000 in its fifth week. It went up 19% from last week, while the other two films posted small decreases around 25%  less than last week.

This Friday, kid-friendly Diary of a Wimpy Kid 3 will go up against the remake of 1990 sci-fi favorite Total Recall.