Everyone knew that 'The Hunger Games: Catching Fire' was going to do well this weekend, but the lingering question was always whether or not it was going to do "really, really well" or "stupidly, gobsmackingly well." We should know by now that you always bet on Katniss Everdeen defying the odds, because it was the latter and everyone made it look easy.

FilmWeekendPer Screen
1The Hunger Games: Catching Fire$161,125,000$38,704$161,125,000
2Thor: The Dark World$14,117,000 (-61.4)$3,802$167,837,000
3The Best Man Holiday$12,522,000 (-58.4)$6,135$50,391,000
4Delivery Man$8,215,000$2,706$8,215,000
5Free Birds$5,300,000 (-34.6)
$1,726$48,594,000
6Last Vegas$4,400,000 (-47.9)$1,504$53,926,000
7Bad Grandpa$3,450,000 (-53.5)$1,314$95,451,000
8Gravity$3,305,000 (-39.2)$1,791$245,503,000
912 Years a Slave$2,800,000 (-39.2)$1,900$29,393,000
10Dallas Buyers Club$2,770,000 (+58.2)$4,159$6,450,000

 

With its $161 million opening, 'The Hunger Games: Catching Fire' has not only topped the opening weekend of the first film, it now has the fourth biggest box office opening of all time, wedging it right between the final 'Harry Potter' movie and 'The Dark Knight Rises.' Its predecessor went on to break the $400 million mark, so we expect that this one will follow suit. After all, it's a significantly better (and better reviewed) movie than the first 'Hunger Games,' so the sky is really the limit. Expect it to break $200 million by next week.

However, the success of 'Catching Fire' had to come out of somewhere. One of those hardest hit was 'Thor: The Dark World,' which fell from the number one spot and only grossed $14 million over the weekend. That's not exactly devastating (the movie is already a huge international hit), but it does make the road to $200 million a little tougher. With a little elbow grease, it should hang around for another month and get where it needs to go.

In third place, 'The Best Man Holiday' fell 58%, but with $50 million grossed, it's already more than paid for itself. Everyone's happy and we'll definitely get a follow-up sooner than you think.

The biggest victim of the 'Catching Fire' success was 'Delivery Man,' which bombed with an $8 million opening weekend. The film is another nail in the coffin of Vince Vaughn's career and he's about one more sizable bomb away from being in serious trouble. For whatever reason, audiences have decided that the star of 'Wedding Crashers' just isn't worthy of their time anymore.

In fifth and sixth place, 'Free Birds' and 'Last Vegas' continued to plow ahead against the odds, grossing $5 million and $4 million each. Both films are hanging out on either end of $50 million and since neither cost that much, they're both going to be perfectly fine when all is said and done. 'Free Birds' in particular will do well on home video.

In seventh place with $95 million is 'Bad Grandpa,' which can just taste $100 million at this point. We'd put good money on it making it there, we just can't say if it'll be next weekend or the weekend after. While we're on the subject, 'Captain Phillips' finally crossed the $100 million mark this weekend, but it did so outside of the top 10.

And 'Gravity'? In eighth place with $245 million, 'Gravity' is just laughing at its crazy and unexpected success. It should be able to reach $250 million before calling it quits.

The top 10 is rounded out with some more serious adult fare, each of them doing quite well. '12 Years a Slave' is poised to break $30 million in the coming days and 'Dallas Buyers Club' is performing well in extremely limited release. We'll definitely keep hearing about these two as Oscar season approaches.

More From Cat Country 102.9