‘The Hunger Games: Catching Fire’ Tops The Holiday Box Office

The Hunger Games: Catching Fire set a new Thanksgiving holiday record at the box office.

Director Francis Lawrence’s follow-up to the 2012 hit amassed an impressive $110.1 million during its five-day run in North America. The sequel’s weekend haul wasn’t too shabby either; the follow-up earned $74.5 million in the span of three days. This was enough scratch to help Summit Entertainment and Lionsgate retain the top spot.

Of course, Catching Fire wasn’t the only flick that managed to generate a fair amount of business during the Thanksgiving holiday. Box Office Mojo reports that Disney’s animated endeavor Frozen brought home $93 million, a number that exceeded expectations.

Frozen helped the folks at Disney trump its previous Thanksgiving holiday box office record. With its $93 million run across five days, the movie defeated Pixar’s Toy Story 2. The family-friendly sequel earned $80.1 million during its theatrical debut back in 1999.

Altogether, The Hunger Games: Catching Fire and Disney’s latest animated feature earned approximately $200 million in ticket sales. Executives at Lionsgate and Disney are no doubt extremely happy with their respective returns. Unfortunately for the cinematic competition, things weren’t nearly as financially festive.

One individual who is clearly excited about the Catching Fire’s recent success is director Francis Lawrence. The Inquisitr previously reported that the filmmaker is very pleased with the film’s box office numbers and the reaction the film received from fans.

He explained to MTV News:

“The numbers are a bit crazy. Sort of hard to comprehend really, but this franchise does have an amazing fan base. I am really happy that the Johanna scenes get great laughs. I think she’s one of the standouts in terms of new characters and am really proud of her scenes… I wanted people to be able to fall in step with the movie easily whether they’ve read the books or seen the first film. The trick is not over-explaining, and that was a fine line that I think we were able to tread appropriately.”

While Alan Taylor’s Thor: The Dark World and Malcolm D. Lee’s The Best Man Holiday continued to post strong numbers at the box office, newcomers Homefront and Black Nativity couldn’t find an audience over the Thanksgiving holiday.

The Jason Statham and James Franco thriller managed to scrape together around $6.9 million from moviegoers during its five-day run at the multiplex. Black Nativity, on the other hand, only scrounged up $3.8 million during its first few days in theaters. However, both titles will likely do fairly well with viewers on home video.

Did you catch The Hunger Games: Catching Fire in theaters over the holiday? Are you surprised that the sequel continues to make a substantial amount of cash at the box office?