'The Hunger Games' tops the box office for the fourth week in a row

The Hunger Games is the first movie to top the box office four weeks in a row since Avatar. Posting its strongest hold yet, the futuristic action movie dipped just 35% for a total of $21.5 million. The megahit has earned $337 million to date. That figure has already topped the lifetime domestic gross of 2010's Alice in Wonderland, another March release that showed the power of the pre-Spring Break box office placement.

Debuting in second place, The Three Stooges earned $17.1 million. Audiences under the 18 were the biggest fans of the trio's antics, giving the comedy an "A" CinemaScore. Despite a marketing campaign that urged women to send their men to see the movie, 42% of the audience was female, indicating that the marketing team may have missed the mark in viewing the humor as male-centric.

The Cabin in the Woods ended up on the high side of expectations with a $14.8 million finish. Even though the movie received a 92% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes from critics, and an 81% positive rating from the site's viewers, it fell flat in exit polls, receiving just a "C" rating. Marketing that didn't clarify this was a "different" horror movie is taking the blame. Audiences expecting a normal scarefest apparently didn't like being thrown for a loop.

Titanic 3D sunk just 32% from last week for a total of $11.6 million. Abroad, it's doing even better, particularly in China. There, the film has earned an astonishing $58 million--a further sign that the nation is becoming one of the top foreign markets.

Audiences got straightforward action with Lockout, but there weren't many takers, and the Luc Besson-produced picture earned a middling $6.2 million in a ninth-place finish.

The documentary Bully averaged $3,380 per screen as it expanded into 158 theatres, for a total just over half a million dollars. That average is higher than many films in the top ten, making it a successful doc, but not a blockbuster--at least not yet.

The Raid: Redemption tried to parlay its rave reviews into a wider release. Although it earned $1 million, the action movie's per-screen average of $1,100 was extremely weak.

This Friday, the soldier-civilian romance The Lucky One will attempt to woo Zac Efron fans, Disney celebrates Earth Day with Chimpanzee, and Think Like a Man will mix romance with comedy.

'Hunger Games' outshines 'American Reunion,' 'Titanic 3D'

The Hunger Games reigned at the box office for the third week. Over Passover/Easter weekend, the young-adult adaptation dipped just 43% for a total of $33.5 million. That was enough to push its domestic total past the $300 million mark, an impressive tally for the budding franchise. Director Gary Ross is currently in negotiations to work on the sequel, which has the added wrinkle of needing to work around star Jennifer Lawrence's commitment to the next X-Men film and make the sequel's release date. Catching Fire is currently planned for a Thanksgiving release next year.

Jim, Stifler, Finch, and Jim's Dad were back for American Reunion, which earned $21.5 million. Given the comedy's so-so reviews, its contrived (thirteen-year high school reunion?) nature, and the series' dilution through straight-to-DVD spin-offs, the debut was impressive. People still like these characters and the series' raunchy style of comedy. Maybe there will be a 20-year reunion film in the works.

Unlike many other 3D re-releases, Titanic 3D was not marketed as a limited engagement with a two or three-week run. Given that, its $17.3 million weekend total (and five-day total of $25 million) is pretty good, even if it came in on the low side of expectations. The figure was enough to push the movie past its reported $18 million conversion budget. Paramount is probably looking at the long game, too, since 3D televisions have created a home entertainment market for films that require glasses to watch.

Writer/director Whit Stillman's Damsels in Distress made a respectable debut with a $16,000 per-screen average in four locations. Italian import We Have a Pope, nicely timed to Sunday's religious holiday, came up with $10,000 per screen in three locations.

The specialty category had a number of movers and shakers. The Raid: Redemption jumped by 100% more last week as it expanded from 46 to 176 locations. The Indonesian action flick averaged $3,200 per screen for a total of $565,000. Jiro Dreams of Sushi expanded from 26 to 70 locations in its fifth week of release. The sushi-making documentary averaged $3,400 per screen, a 24% increase.

This Friday will see the release of the comedy The Three Stooges, the sci-fi actioner Lockout, and the horror flick Cabin in the Woods.

'American Reunion' and 'Titanic 3D' bring audiences back to the '90s

This weekend is full of throwbacks. American Reunion, the fourth film in the '90s franchise to have a theatrical release, will open in 3,191 theatres. The comedy's "main sentiment is that it’s tough to recapture your youthful abandon when you’re thirty-something, no matter how immature you might be," critic Kevin Lally reports, unimpressed with the movie as a whole. Because this weekend has Easter, Passover, and the beginning or end of Spring Break for many of those in school, an opening of $20-30 million is expected.

Fifteen years ago, Titanic was a megahit. Director James Cameron's movie returns in 3D with a 2,717-screen release, including at least some theatres showing the epic in its original 2D. The critical response to the 3D version has been generally positive. New York magazine film critic David Edelstein offers detailed analysis of the use of 3D, noting that "Cameron’s foregrounds are strong, his compositions multi-tiered, Russell Carpenter’s camerawork limpid." Certain scenes are transformed by the use of 3D. The movie released on Wednesday, and has earned $4.7 million to date. Over the weekend, it could pocket another $20 million or so as nostalgia-seekers and young audiences seek out the classic historical romance, which is something like the Gone with the Wind of our era.

If The Hunger Games drops by half, it will still end up with just under $30 million, so there is a chance the futuristic picture will top the box office, depending on the performance of Titanic 3D and American Reunion. PG-rated Mirror Mirror should hold strong given its family-friendly subject matter.

We the Party, a high school comedy with a "welter of clichés," according to FJI critic David Noh, and a predominantly black cast, will release in 59 theatres. Whit Stillman's latest, Damsels in Distress, a "droll, sophisticated take on the dopey college-comedy genre," according to our Doris Toumarkine, will also hit theatres.

On Monday, we'll see if audiences went back to Titanic and caught the 3D version, if American Reunion did as well as similar reunion comedy Grown Ups and captured a nostalgic, raunch-seeking audience, and if The Hunger Games continues to reign at the top of the box office.