Friday afternoon, early reports came in that the Farrelly Brothers’ ‘Three Stooges’ was in the lead at the box office, finally taking out Lionsgate’s juggernaut ‘The Hunger Games’. Between that news and word that ‘Battleship’ opened to the #1 spot overseas, I was beginning to think that Hell had frozen over and that maybe 2012 was indeed headed towards Armageddon.
But now I have hope again. Deadline posted final box office numbers late yesterday and, even though the Stooges took the number two spot (a feat still unbelievable to me), ‘The Hunger Games’ stayed at the top of the box office for yet another week.
For the weekend, ‘The Hunger Games’ brought in another $21.5 million, bringing it’s domestic gross up to $337.1 million. Even more astounding is that ‘Hunger Games’ has breached over $500 million in worldwide ticket sales. Winning at the box office this past weekend, makes ‘The Hunger Games’ the first movie since James Cameron’s ‘Avatar’ to take #1 at the box office for four weeks in a row. Wowzers!
Rounding out the top five at the box office: ‘The Three Stooges’ took the second spot with $17.1 million, Joss Whedon’s horror flick ‘Cabin in the Woods’ opened to $15.1 million, ‘Titanic 3D’ still going strong in its second week with $11.4 million, and raunchy comedy ‘American Reunion’ comes in fifth with $10.6 million.
Of course, the bumping of ‘Three Stooges’ to number two doesn’t mean we’re out of the woods yet. So far, ‘Battleship’ has brought in $58 million overseas and opens in the states in May 18th… the end of the world may be on its way yet.
