LOS ANGELES — The feast is on: “The Hunger Games” has taken in $68.25 million domestically in its first day, a record for a non-sequel.

The Friday total for Lionsgate’s “The Hunger Games” was the fifth-best opening day ever and puts the movie on track for the best debut weekend ever in March. That record is held by “Alice in Wonderland” with $116.1 million.

The big start should translate into an opening weekend of as much as $140 million domestically, according to Paul Dergarabedian, analyst for box-office tracker Hollywood.com.

First-day revenues for “The Hunger Games” were well behind the record $91.1 million for last summer’s “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2.” But “The Hunger Games” came within a few million dollars of each of the last three “Twilight” movies, whose opening days ranged from $68.5 million to $72.7 million.

“The Hunger Games” stars Jennifer Lawrence as a teen forced to compete in a televised death match against other youths in a future North American society where a privileged capital city oppresses the people of 12 outlying worker districts. The film is based on the first book in a best-selling trilogy by author Suzanne Collins.


Only subscribers are eligible to post comments. Please subscribe or login first for digital access. Here’s why.

Use the form below to reset your password. When you've submitted your account email, we will send an email with a reset code.