The Hunger Games Movie Breaks Midnight Box Office Record

The Hunger Games movie is already number one at the weekend box office before the ‘weekend’ even officially begins. In fact, The Hunger Games movie, starring Jennifer Lawrence as heroine Katniss Everdeen, has already broken at least one box office record. Fans flooding midnight screenings of the film tallied up over $19.7 million in ticket sales. That sets the record for the largest non-sequel midnight opening ever.

Although The Hunger Games only placed seventh in the record of biggest midnight openings in history, all the rest of the films on the list were sequels. Perhaps The Hunger Games movie sequel will break that record next time around?

The Hunger Games movie is already predicted to easily beat out the record for the highest March opening weekend record, currently held by 20120’s Alice in Wonderland at $116.1 million. The film could also threaten The Twilight Saga’s best opening weekend record with New Moon at $142.8 million.

However, despite all the hype and crazed theater mobbing by The Hunger Games fans, the all-time record for highest opening weekend box office sales is not expected to fall. That record belongs to Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2, which raked in an astonishing $169.1 million last year in its opening weekend.

Related: New ‘The Hunger Games’ Movie Clip: Peeta Declares Love for Katniss