β€œHunger Games” Crowned PopcornBiz Box Office Champ Yet Again

Katniss trounces the competition like so many tributes

Each week we run the box office numbers through our proprietary formula that tabulates receipts, the film's budget, the number of screens and critical response to see not just who made the most money, but who is really performing well.

For the third week in a row, "The Hunger Games" has been the #1 film in the country, and it's not really close. Thus far, Katniss Everdeen has obliterated the hilarious "21 Jump Street," trounced the woeful "Clash of the Titans," and handily dispatched with the disappointing "American Reunion."

How strong has "The Hunger Games" been? After only three weeks, it's already made $302 million, out earning each of the "Twilight" movies, despite being released during the doldrums of March. And to give you an idea of how well you can expect the subsequent installments to do, consider the first "Twilight" made only $192 million.

Here are this past weekend's top 10 films:

The Hunger Games - $33.5 million
American Reunion - $21.5 million
Titanic 3D - $17.35 million
Wrath of the Titans - $15 million
Mirror Mirror - $11 million
21 Jump Street - $10.2 million
Dr. Seuss' The Lorax - $5 million
Salmon Fishing in the Yemen - $975,000
John Carter - $820,000
Safe House - $581,000

But it's when we run the numbers for films making more than a million through our special formula to get the PBCS scores that we can appreciate how truly dominant "THG" is...

The Hunger Games  - 594
Titanic 3D - 403
21 Jump Street - 193
American Reunion - 64
Dr. Seuss' The Lorax - 19
Mirror Mirror - 17
Wrath of the Titans - 7

Only seven films managed to crack $1 million this weekend, but don't be fooled into thinking "Hunger Games" is benefiting from a bad weekend at the cineplex, as receipts were up roughly 15% over the same weekend last year.

"The Hunger Games" even has an outside shot at taking the title again next weekend, as the horro-comedy "The Cabin in the Woods" is a great movie, but a tough sell, "The Three Stooges" may not appeal to anyone under 40 and "Lockout" lacks the star power (no offense, Guy Pearce--we love you) necessary to really make some noise.

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