Audiences were ridiculously eager to collectively devour their new multi-year franchise, giving Hunger Games with no bankable stars and only books to sell it, a gargantuan opening weekend... right up there with Batman and Spider-Man with nary a superpower in sight... unless you count archery skills. I guess Hawkeye would. You'd think people were actually reading (gasp) given the enormous success of these bestseller-to-movie transfers for about a decade now. Sadly the numbers do not bear this out with one famous study claiming that 27% of adults in the US don't even read one book a year.
As I walked into my consulting job Friday I overheard two women talking, and the conversation might have been scripted for an informercial specifically designed to sell tickets...
Younger Woman: What is this Hunger Games? Everyone is talking about it!
Slightly Older Woman: It's going to kick Twilight's ass. Do you want to know the premise?
I knew it would be big but I didn't know it'd be colossal.
TOP TEN (Estimates)
01 THE HUNGER GAMES $155 new in wide release
02 21 JUMP STREET $21.3 (cum. $71) [Reviewed]
03 THE LORAX $13.1 (cum. $177.3)
04 JOHN CARTER $5 (cum. $62.3) [Review, Kitsch Beefcake, Dr Seuss's John Carter]
05 ACT OF VALOR $2 (cum. $65.9)
06 PROJECT X $1.9 (cum. $51.7)
07 A THOUSAND WORDS $1.9 (cum. $14.9)
08 OCTOBER BABY $1.7 new in limited release
09 SAFE HOUSE $1.4 (cum. $122.6)
10 JOURNEY 2 THE MYSTERIOUS ISLAND $1.3 (cum. $97.1)
How early did you have to show up to get a good seat? We arrived 30 minutes early and that was just barely enough time to get two seats together... on the side. My preference is middle middle but whose isn't? They always fill up first.