‘Hunger Games: Catching Fire’ sets Imax November record

“The Hunger Games: Catching Fire” has shot its arrow through another record.

The second installment in the Jennifer Lawrence-starring dystopian action film series made about $12.6 million from Imax theaters in its opening weekend in North America, showing on 347 screens for an average of $36,300 per screen, according to Imax Corp. and Lionsgate. That beats last year’s James Bond film “Skyfall” for the best November Imax opening ever.

The movie took in an additional $5.4 million from Imax showings in other countries, bringing the worldwide total to $18 million.

Based on the post-apocalyptic young-adult novels by Suzanne Collins, the “Hunger Games” films portray an authoritarian society in which children from oppressed districts are selected to fight to the death as entertainment.

Overall, “Catching Fire” made more than $161 million in its opening weekend domestically, topping “Twilight Saga: New Moon” for the best November debut ever, but coming up short of the year’s biggest grossing movie, “Iron Man 3,” which launched to $174 million.

“Catching Fire” has made an estimated $307.7 million worldwide.

The Mississauga, Canada-based Imax said that eight of the top 10 domestic runs for the movies were Imax showings.

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