Deadline International Box Office

March 23-25 Weekend Actuals

1. The Hunger Games (Lionsgate) NEW [4,137 Theaters] PG13
Friday $67.3M, Saturday $50.4M, Sunday $34.9M, Weekend $152.5M

2. 21 Jump Street (Sony) Week 2 [3,121 Theaters] R
Friday $6.2M, Saturday $8.7M, Sunday $5.6M, Weekend $20.5M (-44%), Cume $70.2M

3. Dr. Seuss’ The Lorax 3D (Universal) Week 4 [3,677 Theaters] PG
Friday $3.2M, Saturday $5.9M, Sunday $4.0M, Weekend $13.2M (-42%), Cume $177.4M

4. John Carter 3D (Disney) Week 3 [3,212 Theaters) PG13
Friday $1.4M, Saturday $2.2M, Sunday $1.5M, Weekend $5.1M (-63%), Cume $62.4M

5. Act Of Valor (Relativity) Week 5 [2,216 Theaters] R
Friday $569K, Saturday $918K, Sunday $555K, Weekend $2.0M (-45%), Cume $65.9M

6. A Thousand Words (DWorks/Par) Week 3 [1,787 Theaters] PG13
Friday $528K, Saturday $899K, Sunday $523K, Weekend $1.95M (-46%), Cume $15M

7. Project X (Warner Bros) Week 4 [2,065 Theaters] R
Friday $632K, Saturday $809K, Sunday $490K, Weekend $1.9M (-52%), Cume $51.7M

8. October Baby (Provident/Goldwyn) NEW [390 Theaters] PG13
Friday $606K, Saturday $618K, Sunday $473K, Weekend $1.7M

9. Safe House (Universal) Week 7 [1,330 Theaters] R
Friday $386K, Saturday $665K, Sunday $352K, Weekend $1.4M (-48%), Cume $122.6M

10. Journey 2 (Warner Bros) Week 7 [1,340 Theaters] PG
Friday $325K, Saturday $613K, Sunday $523K, Weekend $1.4M (-43%), Cume $97.1M

SUNDAY AM, 10TH UPDATE: Lionsgate just revised upwards its worldwide total to a massive $214.25 million for The Hunger Games which was projected to be the No. 1 title in virtually every single market globally. The studio reports this morning that this opening weekend’s North American grosses for Lionsgate’s The Hunger Games total a humongous $155 million after making $68M Friday and $51M Saturday anticipating a decent $36M Sunday hold. That’s a record-setter: the 3rd all-time biggest opening three-day weekend, behind 2008′s The Dark Knight ($158.4M); and the highest non-sequel opening weekend ever; and the highest March opening ever. Other Hunger Games records include the highest debut single day for a non-sequel ever, and the highest opening of all time outside of the Summer blockbuster season, and the 5th highest opening day ever. It also beat the Twilight Saga: The Twilight Saga: New Moon debuted to $142.8M in November 2009, and The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 1 opened to $138.1M in November 2011. Exit polling showed the audiences were 61% female and 39% male, with 56% ages 25 and older and 44% under age 25.

The Hunger Games began shattering records with its $19.75M midnights from 2,565 theaters Friday. Then it expanded into 4,137 locations in the U.S. and Canada, ending up with a per location average of $37,467. Screen count was just under 10,000 prints, about 75% of which are in digital theaters including 268 IMAX theaters across North America where it scored a record-breaking all time high weekend. IMAX’s domestic weekend box office is $10.6M, which is approximately $40K per screen — a massive figure since IMAX only has one screen per location. This weekend broke two key records as IMAX’s best opening weekend for a non-sequel 2D title, and best digital only release.

Lionsgate also finally reported its weekend international numbers which were a very strong $59.25M and tracking ahead of the first Twilight Saga film. The pic opened worldwide day-and-date in 67 markets this weekend on an estimated 7,700 prints everywhere except for Spain, Italy, Japan, and South Korea. The first international numbers coming in from Australia scored a huge $1.8 million (USD) on 471 screens, which was bigger than the debuts down under for Iron Man ($1.0M) and Quantum Of Solace ($1.0M). Then that Australia number went up a big +20% the next day — which is unusual. It ended up just under $10M. The UK grossed a big $7.5M, Russia was a breakout $6.5M, and New Zealand a strong $1.27M. Scandinavia markets combined for $3.7M, Germany $3.9M, France $3.75M, and early estimates include Mexico $3.59M and Brazil $2.6M. Asian markets also posted very solid numbers: Philippines $1.71M, Singapore $1.38M, Taiwan $1.36M, Hong Kong $709K, Malaysia $655K, Thailand $649K. In the UAE $656K and the Gulf region with almost $1M combined.

Why is it doing so well? Because this brutal actioner about love and courage was based on Suzanne Collins’ best-selling trilogy of post-apocalyptic young adult novels and made better than it had to be given all the omnipresent marketing and media hype. Kudos to director Gary Ross (Pleasantville, Seabiscuit) who wrote the screenplay with Collins and Billy Ray, and to the casting of Jennifer Lawrence, Liam Hemsworth, and Josh Hutcherson whom movie critics say are ‘pitch perfect’ for their roles as Katniss Everdeen, Gale Hawthorne and Peeta Mellark, respectively. Kudos as well to producer Nina Jacobson and Lionsgate execs Joe Drake and Alli Shearmur and Tim Palen and Julie Fontaine. Problem is, Hunger Games breaks a long string of box office failures for the studio. So now that Lionsgate has bought Twilight Saga mini-studio Summit and installed the top execs from there to run the movie operations, Drake is no longer co-CEO and Shearmur is being moved to a producer. Welcome to Hollywood, folks.

Adding to the great reviews around the globe (87% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes), domestic audiences gave The Hunger Games an ‘A’ Cinemascore with under-age 18 teens/tweens rating it ‘A+’, an indication of their extreme satisfaction with the movie. Rival studios say The Hunger Games, unlike the Twilight Saga, has expanded from attracting both younger and older females initially now to younger makes as a 3-quadrant movie. And the heat from the anticipation by teens and tweens is making those adults who tap into the cultural zeitgeist start getting interested. So now it’s a 4-quadrant film. Amazingly, NRG tracking showed that over 90% of moviegoers said they were aware of the film right before its release, and roughly 2 out of 3 moviegoers in America who said they were “definitely” going to the movies this weekend were buying a ticket to see The Hunger Games. Huge lines snaked around those U.S. and Canada movie theaters able to schedule Friday midnight screenings. Some locations even arranged to play The Hunger Games at 3 AM and even continuously during this opening 3-day weekend. This is the  biggest movie start ever for Lionsgate, which now can count on a blockbuster bonanza for its franchise. “I’ve never lived up at this level. Very few people have,” one ecstatic Lionsgate exec gushed to me Friday night. “I did see some champagne glasses flowing down the hall.”

What made Lionsgate’s promotional campaign for The Hunger Games so unusual and probably effective was that the studio stuck to the rare strategy of not showing any footage of the games themselves in any marketing materials. So all that staggering amount of interest in this film was incited with no one having actually seen even a hint of over half the movie. Marketing kicked off last summer with 2 Entertainment Weekly covers during production to announce the cast, as well as the launch of the motion poster of the iconic flaming mocking jay. (Since EW has long been the semi-official mag of the Twilight Saga, Lionsgate took a page from Summit — which it now owns.) ABC’s Good Morning America debuted the entire trailer on air in November. Between the release of the first Hunger Games trailer in November 2011 and January 2012, the number of Collins’ books sold nearly doubled. By the time of the film’s opening, Hunger Games was on over 50 magazine covers.

The studio estimates its TV on-air promotions and sponsorships reached over 102 million people in America. They included a 3-night “studio lot sponsorship” on FX movies, Fangasm spots on MTV featuring the Real World Challenges cast, a Comedy Central ‘Action Countdown’ weekend, and an ABC Family ‘Premiere Party’ during the Season 2 finale of Pretty Little Liars where teen female viewers helped break social media records while twittering about a clip featuring fan favorite Peeta. According to SocialGuide, this generated the most social media buzz for any one-hour TV episode on record. The digital campaign was massive and started with the launch of the cast on The Hunger Games‘ Facebook page, then exploded over the past year with its own blogs. Lionsgate also worked exclusively with Microsoft to create games and apps. Publicity-wise, the film had an 8-city mall tour with thousands of fans at each stop around the country, as well as promotional screenings in 26 markets. The film had 5 premieres globally, starting in LA at the Nokia, and then London, Paris, Berlin and NYC.

Overall, the $214M weekend is looking up +76% from last year. The #2 Sony Pictures’ holdover 21 Jump Street and #3 Universal’s Dr. Suess The Lorax did well but other movies couldn’t get traction except Provident Films’ and distributor Samuel Goldwyn Films’ newcomer October Baby. The anti-abortion drama opened in only 390 theaters nationwide but managed the second-highest per-screen average. The independent faith-based film marks the feature debut of video directors and brothers Jon and Andrew Erwin who made it for just a $1M budget. Like its successful predecessors in the genre, the coming-of-age film is relying on word-of-mouth from conservative religious groups and block buys of tickets at churches and colleges. It was first released last fall for three weeks into 13 theaters in Alabama, Tennessee and Mississippi, timed to an ultimately unsuccessful “personhood” ballot initiative and backed with funding from the American Family Association. Provident has had previous successes with faith-based films like 2008′s Fireproof and 2011′s Courageous.

Here’s the Top Ten (based on weekend grosses):

1. The Hunger Games (Lionsgate) NEW [4,137 Theaters] PG13-rated
Friday $68M, Saturday $51.0M, Weekend $155.0M
International $59.25M, Worldwide $214.25

2. 21 Jump Street (Sony) Week 2 [3,121 Theaters] R-rated
Friday $6.2M (-53%), Saturday $8.6M, Weekend $21.3M (-41%), Cume $71M

3. Dr. Seuss’ The Lorax 3D (Universal) Week 4 [3,677 Theaters] PG-rated
Friday $3.2M, Saturday $5.9M, Weekend $13.1M, Cume $177.3M

4. John Carter 3D (Disney) Week 3 [3,212 Theaters) PG13-rated
Friday $1.3M, Saturday $2.2M, Weekend $5.0M, Cume $62.3M
International $172.1M, Worldwide $234.4M

5. Act Of Valor (Relativity) Week 5 [2,219 Theaters] R-rated
Friday $560K, Saturday $925K, Weekend $2.0M, Cume $65.9M

6. Project X (Warner Bros) Week 4 [2,065 Theaters] R-rated
Friday $625K, Saturday $810K, Weekend $1.9M, Cume $51.7M

7. A Thousand Words (DWorks/Par) Week 3 [1,787 Theaters] PG13-rated
Friday $525K, Saturday $905K, Weekend $1.9M, Cume $14.9M

8. October Baby (Provident/Goldwyn) NEW [398 Theaters] PG13-rated
Friday $595K, Saturday $620K, Weekend $1.7M

9. Safe House (Universal) Week 7 [1,330 Theaters] R-rated
Friday $392K, Saturday $670K, Weekend $1.3M, Cume $122.5M

10. Journey 2 (Warner Bros) Week 7 [1,340 Theaters] PG-rated
Friday $310K, Saturday $638K, Weekend $1.3M, Cume $97.1M

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