'The Hunger Games' Wins Box Office For Fourth Consecutive Week

'The Three Stooges' and 'The Cabin in the Woods' debuted in the top five at the weekend box office.
By Ryan J. Downey


Jennifer Lawrence in "The Hunger Games"
Photo: Lionsgate

"The Hunger Games" is the first movie since "Avatar" to top the box office for four weekends in a row.

The adaptation of the popular young adult novel fended off competition from the Farrelly brothers' "The Three Stooges," the positively reviewed "Cabin in the Woods" and sci-fi indie "Lockout" over the weekend, collecting another $21.5 million in North American theaters for an estimated domestic gross of $337.1 million.

"Games" is expected to take in at least $370 million domestically and has already earned more than $500 million worldwide, even as director Gary Ross announced he will not return for the follow-up, "Catching Fire," which is set to reunite Jennifer Lawrence and company next year.

The #2 and #3 spots on the box-office scorecard represented a stark contrast in critical opinion. At press time, "The Three Stooges" had a "rotten" 41 percent score on Rotten Tomatoes, which aggregates reviews from film critics, while "The Cabin in the Woods" boasted a "fresh" 92 percent. With $17.1 million in receipts, "Stooges" was the biggest opening for any movie directed by Bobby and Peter Farrelly in over 10 years, having lined up more with early successes like "There's Something About Mary." Following the departures of Jim Carrey and Sean Penn from the long-gestating project, "Stooges" ultimately cast lesser-known actors in the iconic "Stooges" roles.

Speaking of long-in-the-works movies, "Cabin in the Woods" was originally scheduled to be in theaters in 2009. The horror thriller fell victim to MGM's bankruptcy proceedings before eventually being rescued by Lionsgate, the studio behind "The Hunger Games." Co-written by "Avengers" filmmaker Joss Whedon and his "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" collaborator Drew Goddard (who directed), "Cabin" set social media accounts abuzz in film critic circles. It's the type of movie whose supporters have been careful not to spoil the plot. MTV News' own Josh Horowitz tweeted, "Awesome thing alert! 'The Cabin in the Woods' is out. It's real good. That is all."

The only other widely released new film brave enough to do battle with "The Hunger Games" was "Lockout," which floundered with an estimated $6.3 million debut. Produced by action maestro Luc Besson (who directed 1994's classic "Léon: The Professional"), the sci-fi flick's opening fared worse than recent Besson-associated projects including "Transporter 3" ($12.1 million) and "Colombiana" ($10.4 million). "Lockout" had a "rotten" 32 percent score on Rotten Tomatoes at press time. "Lockout" played in 2,308 theaters; by comparison, "Stooges" opened in 3,477 theaters and "Cabin," in 2,811. "The Hunger Games" played in 3,916 theaters.

In 2009, "Avatar" held on to the top spot for seven consecutive weekends, but "Titanic," also helmed by Jim Cameron, still has the top spot both in terms of all-time gross ($600.7 million in the U.S. alone) and consecutive weekends at #1 (15!). The "Titanic 3D" re-release overseen by conversion-convert Cameron was #4 over the weekend, taking in another $11.6 million for a 12-day total of $44.4 million (bringing the overall haul for "Titanic" to $645.2 million).

More than 1,500 people lost their lives when the Titanic sank in the North Atlantic 100 years ago this month — the wreckage wasn't found until 1985. Cameron's epic 1997 film blends facts with romantic fiction. "Titanic" added another record to its box-office scorecard over the weekend as the re-release enjoyed the highest opening ever in China, taking in $58 million.

"American Reunion" rounded out the top five with $10.7 million in its second weekend. The latest entry in the "American Pie" franchise has made $39.9 million to date. All three of the previous theatrically released entries passed the $100 million mark at the domestic box office, a feat that doesn't seem likely for "Reunion."

Zac Efron will be next up to bat against "The Hunger Games" when "The Lucky One" arrives in theaters this weekend, alongside comedian Steve Harvey's "Think Like a Man" and Disneynature's True Life Adventure "Chimpanzee." Joss Whedon will have another crack at the box-office crown with "Marvel's The Avengers" in May.

Check out everything we've got on "The Hunger Games" and "The Cabin in the Woods." For young Hollywood news, fashion and "Twilight" updates around the clock, visit HollywoodCrush.MTV.com.

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Dreamworks Animation joins Walmart's disc to digital program

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DreamWorks Animation has signed up with Walmart's VUDU-powered disc to digital service. From today, you can take any of the studio's movies (such as Shrek or Kung-Fu Panda) and have them converted to standard quality video for $2 or a HD version for $5. There's no word on if DreamWorks proper would sign up, but given the complex nature of its ownership, we won't hold our breath.

Continue reading Dreamworks Animation joins Walmart's disc to digital program

Dreamworks Animation joins Walmart's disc to digital program originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 16 Apr 2012 13:59:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Marilyn Manson?s Rep Slams Engagement Report

Marilyn Manson’s Rep Slams Engagement Report

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Man-Eating Cheeseburgers, Punk Rock Crabs, and John Cleese on Creativity (NSFW) [Video]

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Canon 'examining countermeasures' for 5D Mark IIIs experiencing top LCD light leak problem

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Looks like the honeymoon period with Canon's beastly 5D Mark III is officially over. Over the past few weeks some users have noticed that light leaking from its top-mounted LCD can affect exposure readouts, and now the company has confirmed that it's indeed an issue. Essentially, the camera's meter can experience a shift in the readout whenever the LCD's backlight turns on in a dark situation -- ensuring frustration when composing shots. There's no word on how wide-spread the problem currently is, but Canon notes that it's "examining the countermeasures" and plans to circle back once it has a solution. Interestingly, PetaPixel also reports that some folks have experienced the phenomenon when ambient light beams down on the panel as well. This isn't the first time Canon's had an issue with a shooter after its release, but hopefully a fix will be in soon. You'll find more details at the links below, but while your here, let us know if you've got a Mark III showcasing the symptoms in the comments.

Canon 'examining countermeasures' for 5D Mark IIIs experiencing top LCD light leak problem originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 14 Apr 2012 20:03:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Mozilla tests out opt-in system for plug-ins in latest Firefox nightly build

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Plug-ins bogging down your web browsing? Then it looks like you could soon have another option to cut through the clutter right in Firefox. The latest nightly build of the browser includes a new feature that lets users turn off all plug-ins by default and then click on each to enable them (something that, we should note, can already be done through third-party add-ons). While that functionality is still in the early stages, Mozilla's Jared Wein says that they're now working on adding the ability to remember plug-in settings on a per-site basis, and hope to have the feature ready for the release version of Firefox 14 (currently due out in July). In the meantime, you can get an early look at the feature in the latest nightly build available at the source link below.

Mozilla tests out opt-in system for plug-ins in latest Firefox nightly build originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 13 Apr 2012 18:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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GM: Explosion at battery research facility ?unrelated to the Chevrolet Volt?

One person was hurt at the GM research site in Michigan during ?extreme testing on a prototype battery? unrelated to the Volt ?or any other production vehicle,? the company said.

An explosion during "extreme battery testing" Wednesday morning of a prototype energy cell at a General Motors battery research facility in Warren, Mich., injured one person and did major structural damage to the building.

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At the heart of the explosion was a lithium-ion battery, according to a fire department official cited in local news reports. The morning blast did not, however, involve batteries that power the Chevrolet Volt, the new plug-in hybrid car whose batteries caught fire weeks after a crash test, General Motors said in a statement.

But the flap over the Volt battery fire has left some insiders feeling more than a little peeved and defensive at the amount of news media attention being devoted to what they say is an almost inevitable, if not routine, event in the business of battery research and extreme testing.

"The whole reason they have these labs is precisely to do this kind of aggressive testing ? anticipating the worst thing a consumer could do with this product," says one expert with direct knowledge of the circumstances surrounding the explosion, who asked not to be named. "This is going to turn out to be a mountain out of a mole hill. Yeah, we're doing a lot of testing. That's what we have to do. Sometimes things explode."

?The incident is still under investigation by GM and the Warren authorities," the GM statement said. "Any information or discussion of the nature of the work in the lab or cause of the incident is entirely speculative and cannot be confirmed at this time. The incident was unrelated to the Chevrolet Volt or any other production vehicle. The incident was related to extreme testing on a prototype battery.?

Despite criticism of the Volt by conservative pundits, a follow-up investigation by the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration concluded the new car was no more prone to fire than any other vehicle.

"The debate over batteries recently really hasn't been about safety so much as about their longevity," says Tom Turrentine, director of the plug-in hybrid and electric vehicle research center at the University of California, Davis. "I think we are mostly over the hump with battery safety. But there's no question that battery labs are notorious for explosions when they're testing."

Lithium-ion batteries are attractive to automakers because they can hold so much power ? about four times the amount of energy a conventional lead-acid battery. Even so, earlier lithium-ion batteries used in other commercial applications burst into flame on occasion. Laptop computer manufacturer Dell Computer recalled millions of batteries after a handful of its laptops burst into flames several years ago.

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Can We Talk About All These Galaxy S III ?Leaks? For A Sec?

Samsung-Galaxy-S-III-but-noteAnother "Galaxy S III leak" hit the blogosphere this morning. A picture. An entirely fake, completely unconfirmed, and obviously tampered with photo. Just like the rest of them. Truth of the matter is, we haven't seen anything legit on the Galaxy S III yet, at least in terms of imagery. I trust that the specs we saw leak out during Mobile World Congress are solid, if not spot on. The release date rumors, on the other hand, seem to be a tango I'm not capable of. April! No, not April! May! Maybe April! WTF?! But far and away, the leaked images are the worst. There's only one that even comes close to looking legitimate, and even that seems forged. Let's have a look, yes?

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