The Hunger Games: Catching Fire grossed a whopping $25.25 million domestically just in its opening night on Thursday. That’s 28 percent higher than the Thursday night gross of the first film, according to Deadline Hollywood.
To put that in context, Iron Man 3 only scored $15.6 million on its Thursday night opening in May of this year. Catching Fire‘s numbers will only continue to, well, catch fire over the course of the weekend.
And Katniss and her fellow tributes will likely deal a final blow to those pesky Twilight vampires and break the November opening weekend record, currently held by Twilight Saga: New Moon at $142.8 million. Online movie ticket vendor Fandango reports that Catching Fire comprises 92 percent of all weekend ticket sales, making it the top advance ticket seller of the year.
Let the games begin.