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Tim Briody: I wouldn't have called Catching Fire's weekend disappointing, but it was strange that it didn't increase from The Hunger Games as much as a sequel is expected to do. I had speculated that maybe some were waiting for the holiday weekend to see it, and it turns out I was correct. It needs to not fall completely off the cliff next weekend, but $400 million is still in play, which would mean both Hunger Games movies have reached that mark.

Max Braden: I have to admit that I'm surprised that this series has already...eclipsed... the Twilight series. I can understand the passion for Twilight because I can see the angst and easily imagine teens lapping it up. The passion for Hunger Games is a little more elusive to me, because although I can see the life and death stakes, this looks more like Running Man for teens than something really *for* teens. That said, the continued juggernaut doesn't surprise me.

Kim Hollis: I was a little bit puzzled by the fact that it didn't have a bigger opening weekend, but the honest evaluation is that so far, Catching Fire is a singular beast. It's just not mimicking the behavior of any other films released during similar or other time frames. I think the reason for its big expansion is exactly the thing that "eludes" Max. It's not a teen film even though it's based on a YA series. It's a four-quadrant film with appeal to a tremendously wide-ranging demographic. What this means is that it has a far greater chance for being huge during Thanksgiving weekend than the much more limited Twilight (and to a lesser degree, Harry Potter) films. Next weekend is a box office dead zone, so it will almost certainly see a significant drop, but it's still just an impressive juggernaut.

David Mumpower: Like everyone else, I am dazzled by the historic nature of Catching Fire's Thanksgiving weekend. While the film actually failed to reach $300 million in 11 days (it missed by $302,000), it still ties Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen for the fourth fastest movie to that milestone. Where I take issue with some of the comments above is that numbers well beyond $400 million are slam dunk.

Consider that during the 2000s, the average Thanksgiving number one film released the week before Thanksgiving has a final multiplier of 1.685 after Thanksgiving weekend. That sounds great for Catching Fire because the total is effectively $500 million. The problem is that the titles that are larger in scale, especially the ones released over the past three years, have only managed multipliers in the 1.27-1.35 range. That would put the Hunger Games sequel in the $375-$400 million area. My current expectation is that it slightly exceeds the original, but that is far from a foregone conclusion.

If Catching Fire does reach $400 million, however, the franchise joins rare company. There are only two (!) other franchises that can claim multiple $400 million domestic performers. Those are Batman and Star Wars although we could add Iron Man if we choose to include The Avengers (I don't). In other words, Catching Fire will claim a fascinating box office achievement if it reaches $400 million. In only 18 months, The Hunger Games franchise will have accomplished something that Harry Potter, The Lord of Rings, Pirates of the Caribbean and Spider-Man never have by claiming multiple $400 million titles. It's kind of a big deal.

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