The Xiphister: The Dominant Hunger Games

The actuals are in for The Hunger Games, and the results from opening weekend are staggering. We all expected for the film to make a ton of money, but the end results surpassed even the lofty expectations of the pundits.

$152.5 million.

There may not be enough Brinks trucks in service to deliver Lionsgate all the cash the film made over the weekend. Here are a few records and distinctions the film earned over the weekend:

Third biggest opening of all time (Between The Dark Knight and Spider-man 3)
Biggest non-sequel opening of all time
Biggest March opening
Seventh biggest midnight release of all-time ($19.7 million)
Second biggest Saturday gross of all time ($50.3 million, trailing only Spider-man 3 at $51.3)
Seventh biggest Sunday gross of all time ($34.8 million)
$10.2 million from IMAX locations, a record for a 2D release, and a record for a digital only release
$214.3 million worldwide; #1 in virtually every market globally
Already Lionsgate's most successful film ever, beating the $119.2 total of Fahrenheit 9/11

That's a lot of dough anyway you look at it.

There's a fleet of these headed your way Lionsgate

What does all this cash rolling in to Lionsgate mean for you? For starters, you are going to get an adaptation of at least one of the other Hunger Games books. The Hunger Games was Lionsgates biggest production ever at $80 million. Now that they've recovered that investment and then some, they can look to greenlight the sequels. I would not be surprised if we heard an announcement for the final books to begin production soon. I'm sure all the actors (who were great) and the director (who was not) all signed three-picture deals so they would be locked up for the sequels.

It also means that we'll be seeing some interesting Lionsgate films starting up. They finally have the financial war chest now to make big production films. In the past, they have made decent action and horror films of low-to-medium budgets. Think Warrior, The Lincoln Lawyer, Rambo, 3:10 to Yuma. Those are quality films that didn't take truckloads of cash to make but still had good return. Now imagine those films with a little bit heavier production values.

The end is nowhere close for The Hunger Games. There isn't much to stop this train from rolling until The Avengers in May. There probably will be a steep drop next week, simply because a lot of the people who wanted to see it got out on its first weekend. It could catch on with strong word of mouth, and it could draw repeat viewings from the teen crowd, which would be an even bigger boost for the franchise. Nobody knows where the end is for The Hunger Games, but it's safe to say that the ceiling is somewhere north of $300 million.