Lionsgate and Disney have a lot to be thankful for over this long weekend, as “The Hunger Games: Catching Fire” and “Frozen” are breaking holiday records at the box office.
Lionsgate’s massive hit “Catching Fire” hunted down another $14.9 million on Thanksgiving day — beating the previous holiday record held by Pixar’s “Toy Story 2,” which earned $13.1 million in 1999.
“Fire,” which stars Jennifer Lawrence and Josh Hutcherson, will likely earn another $100 million or so by Sunday. So far, the sequel has earned $423 million worldwide.
Disney’s animated “Frozen” is also burning up the box office. It picked up $11.0 million on Turkey day, and is on course to earn around $90 million for the five-day holiday stretch. That will make it the biggest Thanksgiving opener of all time, once again topping poor “Toy Story 2,” which enjoyed a $80.1 million five-day debut .
Holdovers “Thor: The Dark World” and “Delivery Man” picked up $2 million and $1.4 million, respectively, on Thursday.
In addition to “Fire” and “Frozen,” there were plenty of other new films at the box office, but they failed to make much of an impact.
Jason Statham’s new actioner “Homefront” picked up $1.4 million. It opened wide on Wednesday, and has so far earned just under $3 million, and may not reach $10 million for the long weekend.
Fox Searchlight’s Christmas musical “Black Nativity” earned $680,000 from 1,516 theaters, bringing its two-day total to $1.1 million.
Spike Lee’s controversial remake “Oldboy” opened in just 583 theaters on Wednesday, but is apparently being lost in the shuffle. The thriller — starring Josh Brolin and Elizabeth Olsen — will be lucky to find $2 million for the five-day weekend.