The Hunger Games: Catching Fire and the 3D animated musical Frozen have dished up U.S. box office records over the Thanksgiving holiday, Belfast Telegraph said.
Lionsgate's sequel, starring Jennifer Lawrence, earned a prodigious 75 million US dollars in its second weekend, while Disney's frosty fete, voiced by Kristen Bell, opened with 67 million dollars, according to studio estimates.
Both films did better than the previous Thanksgiving record holder, Harry Potter And The Sorcerer's Stone, which earned 57.5 million dollars in 2001 over a three-day period.
Snowballing its way to the top, Frozen became the biggest Thanksgiving opening ever and the largest opening for Walt Disney Animation Studios.
The films topped records for the highest domestic box office grosses for the three-day and five-day holiday weekend. Catching Fire blazed the trail to number one and Frozen slid in at number two.
Catching Fire earned the biggest-ever gross for a film from Wednesday to Sunday over the Thanksgiving holiday. It brought in 110.2 million dollars, raising its domestic total to 297 million dollars. Frozen scored 93 million dollars over the five days, topping Disney's previous five-day champ, Toy Story 2, which earned 80.1 million dollars in 1999.
Internationally, Catching Fire continued to bring the heat, earning a total of 276 million dollars through to December 1. Opening at number one in France, Italy and Belgium, the sequel exceeded the opening weekend of The Hunger Game" in all three markets. Overall, the sequel has grossed 573 million dollars worldwide.
