Weekend Box Office: Still Playing Games

This Easter weekend not even the return of the Original Cast from the first 3 American Pie films in American Reunion or the award winning blockbuster 1997 film Titanic in 3-D. could wrest away the top spot from The Hunger Games marking three weeks as the #1 film in the land...

Pamela McClintock of THR:

Still hungry?

Moviegoers continue to feast on Lionsgate's The Hunger Games, which easily topped the domestic box office in its third weekend, falling a narrow 43 percent to $33.5 million for a cume of $302.8 million. The pic jumped the $300 million mark in only 17 days, the fastest for any non-summer or non-holiday title.

Universal's R-rated comedy American Reunion opened to $21.5 million, a solid number considering it has been nine years since the previous film in the raunchy franchise played on the big screen.

American Reunion placed second for Easter weekend, followed by James Cameron's Titanic 3D, which earned $17.4 million, putting its five-day debut at $25.7 million.

Overseas, Titanic turned in a solid $35.5 million from 84 territories; American Reunion grossed $19.3 million from 28 markets and bested Titanic in Russia, according to Universal.

"We're very happy with the worldwide result," said Universal president of domestic distribution Nikki Rocco. "Based on the cost, this is going to be a very successful endeavor for Universal." The studio kept the production budget to $50 million, excluding marketing costs.

Domestically, Titanic 3D -- which cost $18 million to convert -- couldn't match last fall's 3D rerelease of The Lion King, which opened to a stellar $30.1 million on its way to grossing $94.2 million domestically.

Titanic, from Paramount and Fox, did open higher than the recent 3D rerelease of George Lucas' Star Wars: Episode I-The Phantom Menace ($22.5 million) and Beauty and the Beast ($17.8 million).

American Reunion reunites the stars from American Pie (1999), led by Jason Biggs, Seann William Scott and Eugene Levy.

The comedy, which Relativity co-financed, scored a B+ CinemaScore and played evenly among the genders. More than 60 percent of the audience was older than 25.

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