Hunger Games Still Tops At US Weekend B-O

APRIL 2, 2012 - The Hunger Games was once again the undisputed box-office champ this weekend, easily fending off unimpressive fantasy flicks Wrath of the Titans and Mirror Mirror. With that strong holdover performance, and two newcomers combining for over US$50 million, the Top 12 earned an estimated US$145 million (a 27 percent improvement over the same period last year).

The Hunger Games passed the US$250 million on Sunday, which makes it the fifth-fastest movie to ever reach that milestone (first among non-sequels). Through just 10 days in cinemas, The Hunger Games has earned US$251 million, and it could be on track for a final tally around US$350 million.

Wrath of the Titans debuted in second place with an estimated US$34.2 million. That's a little over half as much as Clash of the Titans made on its opening weekend two years ago (US$61.2 million), although there was fair reason to expect such a steep drop-off. Clash may have earned a ton of money, but it's widely considered a misfire of epic proportions (it has a terrible 5.8 rating on IMDb, where users are fairly lenient on fantasy fare).

John Carter (in 6th Place) plummeted 61 percent to just over US$2 million, and has now made a paltry US$66.2 million at the US box office. Unfortunately, international gross has slowed down substantially as well, and the mega-budget sci-fi epic will likely wind up grossing less than $300 million worldwide.

Here are the Top 5 North American B-O studio estimates for March 30-April 1, 2012 weekend, in terms of  courtesy of Boxofficemojo. (US$1=RM3)rank, (previous week ranking), Movie name (studio), Weekend takings in USD, (Cumulative gross, USD) and week on chart,

1. (1) The Hunger Games (LGF) $61.1 million ($251.0 million) 2

2. (-) Wrath of the Titans (WB) $34.2 million ($34.2 million) 1

3. (-) Mirror Mirror (Rela.) $19.0 million ($19.0 million) 1

4. (2) 21 Jump Street (Sony) $15.0 million ($93.1 million) 3

5. (3) Dr. Seuss' The Lorax (Universal) $8.0 million ($189.6 million) 5