Hunger Games Midnight Box Office

Hunger Games Midnight Box Office, Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence) and Gale Hawthorne (Liam Hemsworth) in ‘The Hunger Games’. “The Hunger Games” is No. 1 with an arrow. Fans flocking to the midnight showings drove the film to a $19.7 million start at the box office, according to Lionsgate, the studio behind the film. That makes it the highest non-sequel midnight opening in history, and the seventh highest ever.

“The Hunger Games” is set in a dystopian future where 12- to 18-year-olds fight to the death for the amusement of the capital city of an unrecognizable America – a battle in which heroine Katniss (Jennifer Lawrence) finds herself a competitor.

The book trilogy by Suzanne Collins has 26 million copies in print in the U.S. alone, and the movie adaptation has become a pop culture phenomenon. Fans have been camping out for days across the country to catch a glimpse of Lawrence and co-stars Josh Hutcherson and Liam Hemsworth at premieres and autograph signings.

Industry insiders are projecting the film will easily pass the previous March opening record set by 2010’s “Alice in Wonderland’s” $116.1 million.

It’s also a legitimate threat to “The Twilight Saga’s” highest opening weekend haul, the $142.8 million notched by 2009’s “New Moon.”

The all-time record, held by “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2,” which earned $169.1 million in its first weekend, last year is expected to remain intact.

Hunger Games Movie

Hunger Games Movie, The first installment of the “Hunger Games” trilogy hits movie theaters in three weeks and if you haven’t heard of it, you will soon enough. Big time. Based on the young adult novels by Suzanne Collins, the Gary Ross-directed movie is on pace to be the biggest pop culture phenomenon since the “Twilight” and “Harry Potter” series.

The movie stars young actors Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson and Liam Hemsworth as a trio of teens fighting to stay alive in Panem, a dystopian society that forces its citizens to pay tribute by fighting to the death on live television.

In the real world, fans are just fighting for tickets to see the film.

The movie is so hotly anticipated that on the first day that advance tickets were offered on Fandango, one month before the movie’s March 23 opening, sales accounted for 83% of the website’s totals. Even more telling, these advance ticket sales broke a Fandango record originally held by the third film im the “Twilight Saga.”

“‘The Hunger Games’ is off to a fantastic start,” Rick Butler, executive vice president and general manager of Fandango, said. “We saw the biggest first day advance ticket sales in our company’s nearly 12-year history – which is especially impressive for a March release and a non-sequel.”

So it should come as no surprise that according to a Fandango poll, “The Hunger Games” is the most anticipated franchise of the year.

Still, not everyone is aware of this new cultural phenomenon.