[Smithy]

The Hunger Games could have more box office success than The Twilight Saga: Eclipse, after pre-release ticket sales broke records.

The upcoming film - which opens on March 23 in the US and the UK - set a company record for advance ticketing site Fandango in the first day of sales.

The film scored 83% of sales on the website yesterday, with Act of Valor taking 7%, Tyler Perry's Good Deeds achieving 2%, plus Safe House and This Means War on 1% each.

The Lionsgate production, which stars Jennifer Lawrence as Katniss Everdeen, sold out hundreds of screenings although it does not premiere for another month.

The number of purchases broke the previous first-day advance ticket-seller record - held by The Twilight Saga: Eclipse - on Friday, May 14, 2010.

Rick Butler, who is executive vice president and general manager of Fandango, said: "The Hunger Games is off to a fantastic start.

"Yesterday we saw the biggest first day advance ticket sales in our company's nearly 12-year history – which is especially impressive for a March release and a non-sequel."

Flop ma ass

Update:

The Hunger Games is on course to open bigger than The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 1 in the US.

According to box office tracking numbers, audience anticipation is so high for the Suzanne Collins adaptation that analysts are predicting it will outpace the $138 million Breaking Dawn debut from last November.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 2 currently holds the record for the biggest ever opening weekend (with $169 million), but Hunger Games is expected to surpass the rest of the Potter franchise entries when it is released in cinemas on March 23.

Conservative estimates for The Hunger Games put it between $100 million to $120 million, though opening weekend figures are reportedly harder to predict once a film's tracking rises about the $100 million mark.


Definite interest in the Lionsgate action movie has jumped from 55% to 60% in the last week, while awareness went from 75% to 83%. The Hunger Games is also expected to catch a younger male audience, with interest from men younger than 25 sitting at 28% against the 10% for Breaking Dawn.

An anonymous studio executive told The Hollywood Reporter that Hunger Games is tracking "like a sequel, even though it isn't a sequel. It's three times higher than the first Twilight."

Jennifer Lawrence leads the Hunger Games cast as Katniss Everdeen, a teenage girl selected to take part in a televised fight to the death against other children from the 12 Districts of a post-apocalyptic America (called Panem).