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'Hunger Games' = $155 million domestic

Print | Comments () Posted by Ty Burr March 26, 2012 08:51 AM

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The Monday morning quarterbacking begins: "The Hunger Games" made $155 million domestic and $214 million global over the weekend. Third biggest movie opening of all time. Biggest take for a non-summer release or a non-sequel ever. And a statistic just as meaningful as those others: The second biggest opening for a movie whose title begins with the word "The."

Just so we're clear on this: Opening week box-office says nothing about how well a movie was made and everything about how well it was marketed. Lionsgate and the entertainment news media have been telling the public for over a year that "Hunger Games" would be the next generational Big Thing -- a necessary pop touchstone and corporate profit center now that "Potter" is done and "Twilight" is winding down -- and we all bought in. Fine, and the movie's not bad. But the noise over its opening week windfall is redundant. The entertainment industry rang a bell. Many millions of moviegoers salivated. Pavlov smiles.