The Hunger Games: Catching Fire has punctured a gaping hole in the Box Office money bags in its opening weekend, collecting US$161.1 million in America and just over $2 million here in Aotearoa.
Its US gross makes it the highest grossing opening weekend in the month of November, previously held by Twilight: New Moon‘s $142.8 mil. takings. Catching Fire also slides in at the number 4 slot for all-time US domestic debuts, jumping over The Dark Knight Rises and placing under Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part II.
The sequel’s success has also cause a significant influx of horrible puns in news article titles relating to the story. Yahoo! News cleverly described the film as setting the box office “ablaze” while NY Daily News used the synonym “lights up” – a direct reference to the movie title Catching Fire. Meanwhile, BBC News went for a more unique tact by using the verb “devours” – a witty piece of word play that nods to the ‘Hunger’ aspect of the movie’s title.
NZ Film Award Nominees
The 2013 Rialto Channel New Zealand Film Awards has released its list of nominees, with Shopping and Mr. Pip leading the group with 13 nods each including Best Film. The Weight of Elephants is also up for Best Film with 11 nominations, as is Mt Zion with 8 nominations and Fantail, the micro-budget Kiwi film that could, with 8 nominations.
The full list of nominees and categories can be viewed here.
Things that will happen
Elizabeth Olsen and Aaron Taylor-Johnson will play, respectively, Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver in Avengers: Age of Ultron. Okay, we kinda knew this already, but Marvel has made it officially official with an official news story.
The Gran Turismo movie has its screenwriter – Alex Tse, most notable for helping pen Watchmen, will handle the script. According to Collider, the story will be based on the real-life GT Academy which turns fans of the game into actual race car drivers.
1980s action disasterpiece Road House will receive a remake, which would seem like a pointless endeavour were it not for the ingenious move to hire contemporary action schlock director Rob Cohen (who recently butchered Alex Cross) at the helm. (Via /Film)
Everyone’s talking about…
…James Franco and Seth Rogen’s hilarious shot-for-shot remake of Kanye West’s music video for Bound 2. As one commenter on our Facebook page said “Can’t be unseen – ever!”
