By Ashley Bergner, Box Office Buzz
The odds apparently are still in “The Hunger Games’” favor — the Lionsgate film based on Suzanne Collins’ best-selling young adult novel topped the box office for the second week in a row.
According to the Internet Movie Database, the film took in about $61 million over the weekend in the United States, even beating out two high-profile new releases: “Mirror Mirror,” a retelling of the Snow White fairy tale, took in about $20 million, and the Greek mythological epic “Wrath of the Titans” took in about $35 million.
“The Hunger Games” also has broken several box office records. Entertainment Weekly reported the film’s special midnight showings brought in almost $20 million on opening night, the most ever for a non-sequel. The film went on to earn about $152.5 million domestically ($212 million worldwide) in its first three days, the third-highest opening weekend in the history of cinema, after the final Harry Potter film and “The Dark Knight.”
“This has exploded beyond anything we could have imagined,” director Gary Ross told Entertainment Weekly.
The film’s sequel, “Catching Fire,” is slated to begin filming this fall, and it likely will have a Thanksgiving 2013 release date.
