'Hunger Games' debut earns $19.7M
Jennifer Lawrence stars as Katniss Everdeen in "The Hunger Games," a futuristic thriller based on the book. Credit: Lionsgate
"The Hunger Games" earned $19.7 million in the wee hours of Friday morning, marking the highest-grossing midnight debut for a non-sequel movie, but falling well short of the $43.5 million earned by the midnight record-holder, "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows -- Part 2."
"Games" is the seventh-highest midnight opener, but ticket sales also pale in comparison to the roughly $30 million earned by the "Twilight" film sequels "Eclipse" and "Breaking Dawn: Part 1."
Still, the film is widely expected to earn more than $100 million during its opening weekend, which would put it in an elite club of fewer than 20 movies, most of which were building on well-established franchises. That list includes "Spider-Man 3," "Iron Man 2" and "Shrek the Third."
Based on the first of three popular sci-fi novels by Suzanne Collins, "The Hunger Games" stars Jennifer Lawrence ("Winter's Bone") and Josh Hutcherson ("The Kids Are All Right") as teenagers forced to compete in a deadly reality show.
A sequel, "Catching Fire," is scheduled for release in November 2013.
