Box Office: Hunger Games Hit Milestone

You'd have to go back four years to get two films opening in the same weekend and grossing over $50 million each. Four years ago it was the duo of WALL-E and Wanted that achieved this feat and this weekend another animated film and R-rated film partnered up to repeat this feat. Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted took the top spot with $60.3 million while Ridley Scott's Prometheus was ranked second with $51 million (10th best R-rated debut of all time). Both were right in line with what was expected of them even though the internet hype of the latter certainly contributed to some expecting a bigger gross.

Likewise, recent holdovers such as Snow White and the Huntsman and MIB 3 aren't doing anything special either. While they won't exactly be called flops, it still might be too much to even ask for either one to gross enough to cover their budgets. Speaking of flops, however, the less said about Battleship the better.

The big story of the weekend is The Hunger Games finally crossing the $400 million milestone after 80 days of release and being only the 11th film to do so. No matter how one looks at this, it's an incredible achievement especially for a non-sequel. The other big story of this year's box office is Marvel's The Avengers. While getting hit a bit more than expected this weekend, it is still on its way to reaching the $600 million milestone that no other film not directed by James Cameron has reached.

Finally, The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel and Moonrise Kingdom are both doing their best Midnight in Paris impersonations by doing solid business in the specialty markets. For my part, my friends and I ended up seeing Prometheus this weekend.