Jennifer Lawrence helps lead The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 1 to $17 million Thursday night, positioning for biggest weekend of 2014.
It may only have been hours since the first public screenings of The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1, but Katniss already appears to be a box office savior for Hollywood in 2014.
As reported by Lionsgate, The Hunger Games threequel, starring Jennifer Lawrence as the irrepressible Katniss Everdeen, is estimated to have grossed $17 million on Thursday night screenings alone. While this is notably down from last November’s The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, which scored $25 million on its Thursday night previews, Mockingjay also lacked the IMAX bump provided to its predecessor due to Interstellar monopolizing IMAX screens around the country.
Nonetheless, Mockingjay – Part 1’s box office easily surpasses August’s Guardians of the Galaxy, which only grossed $11.2 million for its Thursday night previews. At this rate, Jennifer Lawrence should handily help lead the latest Katniss adventure well past the low end of Lionsgate’s box office predictions of $130 million (Catching Fire earned $158.1 million during the same weekend in 2013). This would also make it the first uncontested 2014 film to cross $100 million in the U.S. alone, which has been a huge problem for studio blockbusters as of late. For that, Hollywood is grateful that the odds are ever in this franchise’s favor.
The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1 is in theaters now. You can read our review right here.
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