By now, you probably know that The Hunger Games dominated the weekend box office, collecting an estimated $155 million over its opening frame to shatter multiple records and establish its place in Hollywood history. (You might even have read that 22% of all tickets sold over opening weekend were purchased on Fandango, a fact that makes us both proud and appreciative.)
On the list of all-time record openings, The Hunger Games now sits in third place behind Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight and the final Harry Potter sequel, The Deathly Hallows Part 2, which opened to $169.1M in July 2011.
And if you ask Jennifer Lawrence, the star of Gary Ross’ massively successful Hunger Games, she’s perfectly fine with being a runner-up to Harry, which is her all-time favorite book-to-movie adaptation.
“I was a Harry Potter nerd,” the posh and composed Oscar nominee admitted to me during a one-on-one interview on behalf of the Games. “Pencils were wands. I was going to Hogwarts. The whole thing.”
So it’s safe to assume that a portion of the $169 million earned by Deathly Hallows in its record-establishing opening weekend came from Lawrence and friends and they trekked out to see the film again and again in theaters. In fact, when I asked her if she’d mind if Hollywood one day decided to remake the Harry Potter franchise with new actors, her answer surprised me.
“You don’t understand what a nerd I am. I mean, if they remade them, I’d still go. Like, I’ve seen all of [the originals], and that’s always going to be Harry. That’s always going to be Ron and Hermione. But if they did it again, I absolutely would go, because I want to see it all again.”
Millions of Hunger Games fans probably know exactly how Lawrence feels, only they are saying that about Katniss, Peeta, and maybe about Gale.
We’re interested to see how The Hunger Games does in its second weekend, fending off the competition of Mirror Mirror and a 3D Wrath of the Titans. But if Games fans are as passionate about Suzanne Collins’ world as Lawrence is about JK Rowlings’ text, more box office records could fall before all is said and done.
