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Stay hungry, my friends.

Kim Hollis: The Hunger Games became the third largest opener of all-time, as well as the strongest Lionsgate performer of all-time after only three days in release. How impressed are you by this result? Where does this rank amongst the biggest box office surprises of all-time? Where does the Hunger Games franchise go from here?

Tom Houseman: A couple of weeks ago I was talking to David Mumpower about The Hunger Games, and he guaranteed at least $100 million on opening weekend. I scoffed and guffawed, assuring him that the opening film based on a series of books aimed at teenage girls had a ceiling of $80 million, and I would be expecting closer to $70 million. I have learned once again to never doubt D-Mumps, but I don't think even he would have predicted $150 million. That's more than double what Twilight managed. The craziest thing of all? This might end up being only the third highest opening weekend of the year. The Dark Knight Rises is almost certain to beat it and The Avengers might have a shot as well.

Felix Quinonez: Obviously, this is an insane number. I actually didn't think it would make too much more than $100 million, if that. To me, it looked like this was going to be another case of a movie not living up to the insane hype. I thought people had lost their heads a little when they were predicting $130 million and that by the end of the weekend they would be brought back to reality by a smaller but still huge opening weekend. Now I might be getting caught up with the craziness but I think you have to go back to Spider-Man to find another opening as impressive as this. Before Spider-Man, no movie had opened to $100 million and I know that's become a lot more common these days but every other movie to do that after Spider Man was a sequel, except Alice in Wonderland and that was in 3D. So for Hunger Games to come and make $152 million on its opening weekend is nothing short of amazing.

Edwin Davies: I am absolutely flabbergasted by this result. Last week, I said that I thought it would beat Alice In Wonderland, but I was expecting, at most, $120 million, not for it to hop, skip and jump right on in to the record books like this. Seriously, this is the first entry in a new franchise and it finished less than $20 million behind the biggest opening OF ALL TIME. How crazy is that? It's even more impressive when you consider that it's a 2D release, so it actually probably sold as many if not more tickets than Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 managed in its opening weekend. This is pretty unprecedented, I'd say, since even if you look at something like Spider-Man or Alice In Wonderland, those were non-sequels, sure, but they were based on source material that built up huge cultural awareness over many decades, whilst The Hunger Games was published less than four years ago.

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