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Thanksgiving is next week but thousands of Hunger Games fans will be giving thanks early this weekend by storming theaters to see the third film in the Lionsgate franchise: Mockingjay Part 1.
Exhibitor Relations expects the film will have the biggest opening of the year with $170 million or more at the U.S. box office this weekend. To date, Transformers: Age of Extinction had the biggest opening with $100 million. After this weekend, that’s likely to be a distant second place. Last year’s Catching Fire opened to $158 million and went on to earn $865 million. With a $170 million opening and no other really big films set to hit theaters until December 12th when the big bible epic Exodus:Gods and Men opens, Mockingjay could be on its way to $1 billion at the box office.
If the two parts of Mockingjay earn $2 billion at the box office, it will be an amazing return on investment for Lionsgate which produces the franchise. The studio reportedly spent $250 million to produce the two films back to back. That might sound like a lot but consider it would have probably cost upward of $300 million to produce the films separately.
And although $1 billion has become the new standard for a successful movie, it’s actually still a pretty rare feat. Look at Box Office Mojo’s list of the top grossing movies of all time at the global box office. Only 19 films have earned over $1 billion.
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Forbes
For those keeping score at home, a $170M opening would be the third biggest of all time (Higher than Deathly Hallows Pt 2, lower than Iron Man 3, The Avengers).
And if the film holds up at the box office like its predecessors (and the lack of competition suggests it will), then it'll end up with $460M domestic
grats to them
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