While everyone else was busy with Thanksgiving, Lionsgate's "The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes" box officetook the top spot.
After being out for more than 10 days, Lionsgate's Hunger Games predecessor The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes has reached its first big box office goal in the United States. The movie opened in theaters on November 17 and made less than $50 million, which is the lowest opening for a movie in this series. But it did really well in its second weekend, thanks in large part to the Thanksgiving bump. Now, The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes is happy to have made $100 million in sales in the United States and is now passing $200 million in sales around the world.
Rachel Zegler spreading her arms at the Hunger Games: The Ballad Of Songbirds & Snakes movie As the market tries to recover from two strikes that shut down the box office, here are some benchmarks to cheer about, in its 11th day out, Lionsgate's "The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes" made more than $100 million in ticket sales in the United States. So far, Songbirds & Snakes has made a total of $200M around the world.
A review aggregation site called Rotten Tomatoes gave the R-rated thriller a score of 61% from critics and an audience score of 59%. It got a B-minus grade from people who saw it, according to CinemaScore. After John Wick: Chapter 4, this is Lionsgate's second movie this year to make over a hundred thousand dollars. That movie did it in eight days. It's also the 23rd movie in 2023 to make more than $100M. In 2022, there were only 18 movies that made more than $100M.
Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes opened to $98 million around the world and less than $50 million in the United States, which was the lowest opening for the series. After Jennifer Lawrence played Katniss Everdeen in the first two movies in the series, each one made over $100 million in its first weekend.
At the same time, Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes did well over its second weekend, which was Thanksgiving. The Hunger Games prequel made an extra $41 million over the holiday weekend, beating out Ridley Scott's Napoleon and Disney's Wish, which were both new releases.
With just under $2 million more, the movie finally hit the desired $2 million mark on its second Monday. Additionally, every previous movie in the Hunger Games series made more than $100 million in its first weekend. Based on that measure, The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes is still the lowest-grossing movie in the blockbuster series. More importantly, it's also the cheapest, with an estimated $100 million budget.
Since the first Hunger Games movie, which was made on a budget of less than $80 million and made over $700 million worldwide and over $400 million in the United States, this makes The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes the least expensive one. Between $130 million and $160 million was spent on the second, third, and fourth movies. The Hunger Games, which was directed by Gary Ross, is the only movie in the series that wasn't made by Francis Lawrence, who also directed The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes.
Although Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes is still the least successful movie in the Hunger Games series, it is also one of the least expensive, with an estimated $100 million budget. This means that the prequel movie will start making money a lot sooner than its predecessors.
With almost $200 million made around the world in 12 days, it looks like it's already doing well. That being said, it's still too early to tell how high Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes will go in its third weekend when it goes up against Beyoncé's Renaissance.
The new predecessor to The Hunger Games may not be as successful at the box office as Jennifer Lawrence's previous movies, but it is one of the better movies of 2023 and will help keep things steady at the box office this holiday season.
With $42.2 million over the five-day Thanksgiving weekend, The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes beat out Disney's Wish and Apple/Sony's Napoleon to win its second straight weekend at the North American box office. This week, the movie passed a big box office mark.
Songs & Snakes is the 23rd movie in 2023 to make over $100 million in ticket sales in the United States. It made enough on Monday ($1.9 million) to get it over the finish line. Songbirds & Snakes has made more than $165 million around the world. Songbirds & Snakes looks like another win for Lionsgate this year. The film has been doing well in theaters and had a budget of about $100 million.