The highly anticipated film, The Hunger Games, hit theaters this past weekend and did incredibly well financially. The blockbuster film adaptation of the novel by Suzanne Collins, made $19.5 million in midnight screenings (of which I contributed $25 dollars when I went to the showing) across North America. By the end of its first day in theaters the film had already collected $68 million.

As for the entirety of its opening weekend, the film grossed a historic $155 million. This accounts for the opening weekend as Friday through Sunday. Its financial success is the third biggest in Hollywood history, beating out Spider-Man, Pirates of the Caribbean and Twilight movies, among others.

The Hunger Games is also the biggest non-sequel opener as well as the biggest non-summer opener, the highest opening in the month of March, and Lionsgate’s highest grossing release ever.

The film also did very well internationally, where it opened at No. 1 in almost every market it played.

Worldwide the film ended up grossing $214.3 million for opening weekend.

Studio executive, David Spitz commented that,

To launch this franchise in the way we did is mind-blowing.”

Understandably, considering the film is features a female lead, the film’s audience comprised primarily of females at 61%. However, surprisingly, more than half of the audience was made up by moviegoers were over the age of 25 with a percentage of 56%.

The film was definitely a success. While fans have had mixed feelings regarding the film adaptation, it seems that it is still a hit. Its sequel, Catching Fire, has been given a release date of November 22, 2013.