Weekend Box Office: Odds Favor Hunger Games for Fourth Weekend as Stooges, Cabin Fall Short

By Chris Kavan - 04/16/12 at 01:51 AM CT

While the weekends new films put up a valiant effort, neither Three Stooges, nor a scary cabin nor a prison breakout in space could bring down Katniss and co. from the top spot.

The Hunger Games was the first film since Avatar back in Jan. 2010 to top the box office for four straight weeks. Bringing in an estimated $21.5 million on the strength of a robust female audience, the film raised its total to $337 million and is expected to reach around $370 million before its run is over. The film dropped just 35% from last week - the strongest hold for the film yet.

The slapstick tomfoolery of The Three Stooges was good enough for a second place, bringing in $17.1 million. While that total it down compared to many other TV-to-film adaptations like Get Smart ($38.7 million) and even Land of the Lost ($18.8 million), it still represents one of the strongest openings from the Farrelly Brothers - in fact their third best opening behind Me, Myself and Irene ($24.2 million) and Shallow Hal ($22.5 million). The movie drew a good response from the younger crowd - 52% under the age of 25 award the film an A - although across the board it earned a middling B-.

Coming in third was the horror/comedy Cabin in the Woods, a genre-bending movie that took the usual horror trope and stood it on its head. With $14.9 million, it may not have been up to many similar horror titles that Lionsgate has produced, such as Saw and Hostel, but considering the mash-up of genres, it held its own. Audiences, many of whom were probably expecting a straight-up horror film, awarded it a disappointing C average. However, for horror fans looking for something interesting and different (myself included), it was a breath of fresh air.

Thing were far less rosy for the week's other new release. The space prison break action/thriller Lockout only took in $6.25 million - barely cracking the top 10 with a ninth-place finish. It represents a low point for Luc Besson, as it opened lower than both Colombiana ($10.4 million) and From Paris with Love ($8.2 million). Expect it to fall off the radar rather quickly with numbers like that.

Rounding out the top five - Titanic 3D continued its impressive run, down just 32.7% in its second week - holding better than every previous 3D re-releases, save The Lion King (which dropped just 27% in its second week). The film took in another $11.6 million, raising its total to $44.4 million and its all-time domestic gross to $654.2 million.

American Reunion took a 50% hit, dropping to fifth place with $10.7 million. That raises its total to just under $40 million - still well behind the $87.3 million and $65.2 million that American Pie 2 and American Wedding had made by this time in their respective runs. Chances are this will be the first American Pie film to fall short of the $100 million mark.

Next week female audiences look to be drawn to The Lucky One - probably the biggest threat to The Hunger Games. Otherwise, Disneynature presents their latest documentary: Chimpanzee while the ensemble cast of Think Like a Man bring on the comedy. Will this finally be the week The Hunger Games falls? Stay tuned.