OK. So this one shouldn’t be too much of a surprise. “The Hunger Games” ruled the box office roost this weekend, taking in a truly insane $155 million, propelling a 111 percent increase in ticket sales over the weekend before.
Anyone who doesn’t think this won’t end up a Harry Potter-style, cash-gobbling franchise has another thing coming. It’s probably only a matter of time before the amusement park rides open.
From BoxOfficeMojo, here’s the weekend, by the numbers:
| 1 | N | The Hunger Games | LGF | $155,000,000 | – | 4,137 | – | $37,467 | $155,000,000 | $78 | 1 |
| 2 | 1 | 21 Jump Street | Sony | $21,300,000 | -41.3% | 3,121 | – | $6,825 | $71,051,000 | $42 | 2 |
| 3 | 2 | Dr. Seuss’ The Lorax | Uni. | $13,100,000 | -42.5% | 3,677 | -92 | $3,563 | $177,300,000 | $70 | 4 |
| 4 | 3 | John Carter | BV | $5,014,000 | -63.1% | 3,212 | -537 | $1,561 | $62,347,000 | $250 | 3 |
| 5 | 5 | Act of Valor | Rela. | $2,062,000 | -44.8% | 2,216 | -549 | $931 | $65,942,000 | $12 | 5 |
| 6 | 4 | Project X | WB | $1,950,000 | -51.8% | 2,065 | -857 | $944 | $51,752,000 | – | 4 |
| 7 | 6 | A Thousand Words | P/DW | $1,925,000 | -47.0% | 1,787 | -108 | $1,077 | $14,926,000 | $40 | 3 |
| 8 | N | October Baby (2012) | Gold. | $1,718,000 | – | 390 | – | $4,405 | $1,718,000 | – | 1 |
| 9 | 7 | Safe House | Uni. | $1,400,000 | -48.5% | 1,330 | -590 | $1,053 | $122,600,000 | $85 | 7 |
| 10 | 8 | Journey 2: The Mysterious Island | WB | $1,373,000 | -42.5% | 1,340 | -595 | $1,025 | $97,155,000 | $79 | 7 |
Meanwhile, the New York Times takes a look at World Wrestling Entertainment’s adventures in the movie biz.
The global brand has its hands in a pair of action films, “The Day,” and “No One Lives.” It even managed to convince Hugh Jackman to participate in a recent episode of its weekly “Monday Night Raw” series.
Here’s the nut graf:
“With 13 pay-cable events each year, six television broadcasts a week, a line of Mattel action figures and various other properties, WWE has the kind of marketing clout that should be able to give its film projects — previously dominated by mediocre vehicles for fading wrestlers — the juice they need to be commercial. Successful. Maybe even respectable.
“To some degree we’re under a microscope,” Mr. Luisi said of WWE Studios, “because people are scratching their heads a little bit and saying, ‘What exactly are they up to here?’ ”
He likens the wrestling powerhouse to the Walt Disney Company, smiling as if to acknowledge the incongruities. “We have a very iconic brand; we have a core of fervent fans; we have motion-picture production, television productions, live events, consumer products, digital and social media,” he said before adding: “It’s certainly a brand very different from the Disney brand, and we are TV-PG. But we’re a family brand at the heart. You wouldn’t think of it that way. But you wouldn’t expect to see the Muppets on ‘Monday Night Raw,’ and there they were.”
The Cineaste's Lament. 