Dallas, Texas 11/25/2013 (Financialstrend) – The $4.6 billion market capped Lions Gate Entertainment Corp. (USA) (NYSE:LGF) is a movie production house and theather operator. It hit the jackpot this weekend when the movie “The Hunger Games: Catching Fire” that it has produced grossed a humongous $307 million through its first weekend of screening. The movie which is a second in a series was released earlier last week. The first movie of the series also produced by Lions Gate Entertainment Corp. (USA) (NYSE:LGF) was “Hunger Games” and played to widely critical acclaim and box office success in 2012. In its home market of U.S and Canada, the movie which features Jennifer Lawrence as the key protagonist has managed to set a new record for a November movie openings by raking in $161 million in the first four days of its release. This places the movie second in line after this year’s other biggest blockbuster Iron Man 3 which brought in a cool $174 million in its first four days of screening this year.
Readers should note that the original movie “Hunger Games” had helped Lions Gate Entertainment Corp. (USA) (NYSE:LGF) record a total of $691 million from ticket sales and royalties.
The sequel is running to packed halls all over U.S with critics offering vey high ratings for the firm’s script and the absorbing story line’s strength to attract a wider aged audience compared to the first movie in the genre. This the industry experts believe is going to help Lions Gate Entertainment Corp. (USA) (NYSE:LGF) attract more audience to view the movie through the thanks giving weekend.
The studio had spent close to $185 million for the production and the post production advertisement activity for the movie “Catching Fire”. With the production house recovering almost double its spend in the first week of showing itself, the executives at Lions Gate are sure anticipating making a killing from the earnings of this film.