Friday, May 22, 2026

Friday Box Office: New “Hunger Games” Gets $19.2 Mil Start, Eyeing $45 Mil Weekend

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Everyone at Lions Gate is singing the Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes this morning.

The new “Hunger Games” movies has made $19.2 million including Thursday previews. They’re looking at a $45 million weekend. More proof that a brand name can sell anything.

“Trolls Band Together” opened to a Thurs-Fri total of $9.3 million. The animated sequel to a sequel has also made $69.4 million abroad. It was very smart to release it overseas first. The movie relies heavily on Justin Timberlake and NSync. Their song from the movie, “Better Place,” is a stiff on the charts, however.

This is turkey week, and it looks like the biggest turkey may be the horror film, “Thanksgiving,” from Sony. It’s made just $3.825 million in its opening. Maybe it should have been stuffed with more mouth watering treats. “Thanksgiving” may be undercooked.

“The Marvels” from Disney was off by 87% from last Friday.

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Roger Friedman
Roger Friedmanhttps://www.showbiz411.com
Roger Friedman is the founder and editor-in-chief of Showbiz411. He wrote the FOX411 column on FoxNews.com from 1999 to 2009 and previously edited Fame magazine and wrote the "Intelligencer" column at New York magazine. His bylines have appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, the New York Daily News, the New York Post, Vogue, Details, and the Miami Herald. He is a voting member of the Critics Choice Awards (Film and Television branches), and his movie reviews are tracked by Rotten Tomatoes. is articles have appeared in dozens of publications over the years including New York Magazine, where he wrote the Intelligencer column in the mid 90s and covered the OJ Simpson trial, and Fox News (when it wasn't so crazy) where he covered Michael Jackson. With D.A. Pennebaker and Chris Hegedus, he co-produced the 2002 documentary "Only the Strong Survive," which screened at Directors' Fortnight at the Cannes Film Festival.

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