Box Office Update: "Hunger" Devours "Wrath" & "Mirror"

This weekend continued the trend of behemoths dominating senselessly due to unearned enthusiasm while the real gems are still acknowledged, though not nearly as much. I wasn't happy with "The Hunger Games", so the impact of its gargantuan debut had me shrugging with an extreme sense of banality. Though the film did take a massive tumble this weekend, but that's to be expected from such an outstanding opening figure. The film is working on its crawl towards $350-$400 million by the end of its run, though where it lands in that schema depends largely on how it fares next weekend. If nothing else, the film is giving an uncustomary boost to a usually banal box office frame.

And the rest of what's currently filling up the market isn't faring too terribly, if not particularly as excellent. "Wrath of the Titans" opened second to nearly half of what its predecessor opened to. Granted there has been a lot of well earned hatred surrounding that film that this one has been attempting to redeem, so it does have a fight ahead of it, especially if it wants to make back its $150 million budget. Admittedly, that's an easier target to achieve than "John Carter" had against it. "Mirror Mirror" too isn't quite raking in the children it expected to, and everyone else just isn't giving notice to it. It largely depends on buzz, and if the small faction of people who adored it are able to spark enough interest in it.

"21 Jump Street" is surprisingly continuing to fare well and isn't disappearing from sight quite as quickly as we had believed it would. The film has legs that seem to be carrying it towards a strong finish well above the $100 million mark. "The Lorax" too has been displaying extraordinary staying power over the past several weeks, and should soon make short work of that $200 million barrier. Below that, however, there are many films that seem so insignificantly fading away. Next weekend should offer the last strong box office weekend until "The Avengers" arrives, with "Titanic 3D" and "American Reunion" fighting for audience's nostalgia.

1. "The Hunger Games" (Second Weekend; $61.1 million; $251 MILLION TOTAL)

2. "Wrath of the Titans" (First Weekend; $34.2 million)

3. "Mirror Mirror" (First Weekend; $19 million)

4. "21 Jump Street" (Third Weekend; $15 million; $93 MILLION TOTAL)

5. "The Lorax" (Fifth Weekend; $8 million, $189.5 MILLION TOTAL)

6. "John Carter" (Fourth Weekend; $2 million; $66.2 MILLION TOTAL)

7. "Salmon Fishing in the Yemen" (Fourth Weekend; $1.3 million; $3.2 MILLION TOTAL)

8. "Act of Valor" (Sixth Weekend; $1 million; $67.8 MILLION TOTAL)

9. "A Thousand Words" (Fourth Weekend; $.9 million; $16.5 MILLION TOTAL)

10. "Journey 2" (Eighth Weekend; $.8 million; $98.5 MILLION TOTAL)