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Kim Hollis: Catching Fire achieved a historic second weekend, becoming the first film to earn over $100 million over the five days of the Thanksgiving holiday period. It has now earned $573 million worldwide. How has your opinion of Catching Fire/the franchise evolved because of these results?

Jason Barney: We only have to go back to last week when some of the pundits were calling the opening "disappointing" to see how quickly the direction of the wind changes. I didn't think Catching Fire was going to perform THIS well, but I hope anyone who put the "disappointing" label out there goes back and reads their work. With respect to weekend number two, this is truly historic. Holiday weekend or not, when a flick is compared to Avengers with respect to how quickly it has earned money, you know there is a story there.

My opinion of the franchise really hasn't changed. I've been pleasantly surprised and impressed every step of the way. I have not read the books, but I know people who had read them prior to the material moving to the big screen. They loved the books. When Hunger Games appeared in theaters, part of my reaction at the time was that movie going was in a general upswing. This sequel and the extent to which fans are embracing it really show how much this story is liked.

I find myself wanting the franchise to succeed, as the films have totally destroyed anyone's expectations. When this sort of success comes out of no where, and the product appears this good, you can't help but hope people respond in a positive way.

Felix Quinonez: I guess I got a bit carried away a couple of weeks ago when I predicted Catching Fire would beat Iron Man 3's opening weekend gross. Because Catching Fire didn't grow much from the first film's opening weekend I thought that might have been a sign that the series wasn't going to attract many new viewers. But this weekend made me change my mind again. Now I'm even more confident about its legs. Even though the weekend was boosted by the holiday, I still think it's a very strong sign that it will hold on for a while. So, before it came out I thought catching Fire could make it to $500 million domestically; after its first weekend I thought it would end in the same ballpark as the first one, $408 million or so. But now I think it might get to $475-500 million domestically. We'll see if I change my mind next weekend.

Edwin Davies: My overall opinion hasn't changed, though my understanding about just how huge the series has become has expanded. I said last week that the holiday weekend would be kind to Catching Fire, giving it the opportunity to make up some ground after the opening weekend (which, while still massive, was not as high as a lot of people thought it might be) and allow it to gross more than its predecessor, and ultimately become the highest grossing film of 2013. That now seems to be a certainty at this point. However, I didn't expect it to do quite this well, so that puts an end to the idea that the audience for The Hunger Games hasn't expanded much; clearly, it has, but not everyone showed up last weekend. Many of the fans clearly decided to wait for the holiday weekend, and they showed up in their droves.

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