Lionsgate has topped the $1 billion mark at the box office, both domestically and overseas, for the second year in a row, the company said Monday.
Driven by “The Hunger Games: Catching Fire” and the Summit Entertainment sleeper hit “Now You See Me,” the domestic total for the studio hit $1.025 billion on Sunday. Combined with the $1.227 billion its brought in from abroad, Lionsgate’s worldwide total for the year is $2.225 billion.
“Catching Fire,” with Jennifer Lawrence reprising her role as Katniss Everdeen, is the second-highest grossing film of 2013 domestically, with an estimated $372 million. It’s brought in $393.6 million internationally for a total of $765.6 million worldwide in its first five weeks of release, already topping the $691 global haul of “The Hunger Games.”
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The magic-themed heist thriller “Now You See Me” has grossed $354 million worldwide, with $118 million domestically and $236 million internationally.
There are two more “Hunger Games” movies — “Mockingjay Part 1” is set for next November and Part 2 comes the following year — and the studio plans a “Now You See Me” sequel as well.
Lionsgate Chief Executive Officer Jon Feltheimer and Vice Chairman Michael Burns said it was consistency and their team’s effort that made the difference.
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“We continue to do more with less, maintaining our commitment to a disciplined financial model that is focused on limiting production capital at risk,” they said in a statement. “We’re especially pleased to achieve contributions from our entire portfolio of films this year, from Lionsgate’s ‘Catching Fire’ and Summit’s ‘Now You See Me’ to Pantelion’s ‘Instructions Not Included’ and Codeblack’s ‘Kevin Hart Let Me Explain.’”
Pantelion Films’ “Instructions Not Included,” starring Mexican TV star Eugenio Derbez, became the highest-grossing Spanish-language film ever released in the U.S. with $44 million. The comedy concert film “Kevin Hart Let Me Explain,” which cost less than $3 million to make, brought in $32.2 million.