By Trent Moore, Source: Blastr.com
A lot of people have deemed The Hunger Games a successor to Twilight. Both are films based on blockbuster teen novels, both are hotly anticipated, and both have rabid fan bases. But The Hunger Games might already be overtaking the vampire franchise. The flick won’t be out for another month, and it’s already topped a Twilight ticket sales record.
On Wednesday, online movie ticket vendor Fandango put opening-day tickets to The Hunger Games on sale for the first time. On Thursday, they announced that first day of sales was the biggest first day of sales for a single film in the company’s 12-year history, breaking a record previously set by The Twilight Saga: Eclipse in May 2010.
Fandango didn’t release the full number of tickets sold, but the company’s general manager Rick Butler noted that the number is particularly impressive when you consider both that this is the first film in a franchise and that the flick is coming out in March rather than in the traditionally blockbuster-laden summer season.
So after selling tickets for just one day, The Hunger Games has already set itself apart from Twilight. In the month left before its release, we’ll see what other feats it can achieve. It never will wipe those sparkly vampires completely off the Earth, but maybe it can help us to forget a little.