‘The Hunger Games: The Ballad Of Songbirds and Snakes’ Fires Up On Tracking With $50M Opening – Box Office
deadline.comEXCLUSIVE: Lionsgate and Francis Lawrence’s return to the Suzanne Collins franchise with a pic based on her prequel novel is looking like a $50M start on Nov.
17, which is in the vicinity of 2011’s Rise of the Planet of the Apes ($54.8M). While women 17-34 are indeed the hot demo for The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, it’s not excessively female as there is interest from males as well.
The pic cost around $100M. Lionsgate opted to stay the course with Songbirds and Snakes and not move the movie off the schedule due to the actors strike given the competitive advantage in the marketplace: Legendary/Warner Bros.’ Dune: Part Two jetted off the November schedule, giving Lionsgate access to more PLF screens.
In addition, with a brand like Hunger Games, fans were already coming to this movie which touts a fresh face cast led by Tom Blyth and Rachel Zegler; a complete reboot of the franchise which through four movies has earned over $3 billion worldwide.
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