Hunger Games: Catching Fire tops US box office for second week

Hunger Games: Catching Fire has topped the US box office for a second week, while Disney’s Frozen opening has come at number two.

According to early estimates, the Hunger Games sequel took $110.2 million while Frozen took $93 million.

That figure made Frozen the biggest Thanksgiving opening ever.

Catching Fire and Frozen both beat the Thanksgiving box office record of $82.4 million set by Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone in 2001.

Dave Hollis, Walt Disney executive vice president for distribution, said: “This was much more than we ever could have thought,” adding that it was the biggest-ever opening for one of its releases.

Disney’s Tangled opened during the Thanksgiving period in 2010, taking $68.7 million.

Frozen tells the story of a Scandinavian princess who tries to save her kingdom after the queen – her sister – accidentally uses her magic powers to freeze the country.

Disney’s action film Thor came in third with $15.5 million.

Ensemble movie The Best Man Holiday took $11.1 million to claim fourth spot, while Homefront, written by Sylvester Stallone and starring Jason Statham, was the second highest new entry at five with $9.8 million.

But Spike Lee’s latest offering, Oldboy, failed to make a big dent on the chart, taking just $850,000.

Nelson Mandela biopic, Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom, took $100,306 – but that will be considered a solid return given it only opened in four cinemas in New York and Los Angeles.

The North American box office took $294 million in total, another record, just beating last year’s five-day Thanksgiving takings of $290 million.

North American box office Top 5:

1. Hunger Games: Catching Fire – $110.2 million

2. Frozen – $82.4 million

3. Thor: The Dark World – $15.5 million

4. The Best Man Holiday – $11.1 million

5. Homefront – $9.8 million