The Hunger Games - Thursday Midnight Debut
Lionsgate scored the best post-midnight debut ever for a non-sequel with its launch of the highly anticipated The Hunger Games which grossed an estimated $19.7M on Thursday night from showtimes starting at 12:01am. This included IMAX shows as well as the post-3:00am shows added by some theaters to meet fan demand. Overall, it was the seventh best midnight opening following a six-pack of Harry Potter and Twilight movies which were also based on beloved books with fans eager to see the film version right away.
The top post-midnight bow remains last July's Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 with $43.5M on a Thursday night including a boost from 3D surcharges. Following that wizard pic are Twilight films Breaking Dawn Part 1 ($30.3M on a November Thursday night), Eclipse ($30M on a June Tuesday), and New Moon ($26.3M on a November Thursday) as well as Potter installments Deathly Hallows Part 1 ($24M on a November Thursday) and Half-Blood Prince ($22.2M on a July Tuesday).
Although the Hunger Games figure did not meet some of the industry's wildly high expectations, it was still sensational for the first installment of a new movie franchise. Upfront demand on sequels is generally higher pushing more of the fan base to those first midnight shows so all day Friday should provide an avalanche of additional ticket sales from those interested in a midnight showing.
While it is still too early to tell how the full opening day Friday will end, a figure in the low to mid $50M range could result which would easily be tops among non-sequels beating the $40.8M of Alice in Wonderland. Having a bigger weekend may be a different story, though, given the Depp film's family boost on Saturday.
Get continued Hunger Games box office updates and analysis by following BoxOfficeGuru.com on Twitter.
Be sure to check the all-time box office charts for Top Opening Days and Top Opening Weekends which Hunger Games is sure to join.
Last Updated: March 23, 2012 at 12:20PM ET