"The Hunger Games" took $152.5 million at the box office in its opening weekend — about $2.5 million less than early studio estimates predicted, but still enough to make Lionsgate's blockbuster the No. 3 opening of all time, the studio said Monday.
It knocked "Spider-Man 3," which took $151.1 million in its opening weekend in 2007, to fourth place.
Also read: 'The Hunger Games': A Blockbuster Without Young Men
On Sunday, Lionsgate had estimated that "The Hunger Games" would draw $155 million for the weekend.
The movie took $67,263,650 on Friday, $50,394,419 on Saturday and $34,877,678 on Sunday. Friday's tally includes $19.7 million from midnight showings.
Lionsgate's early estimates had the movie taking $68 million on Friday, $51 million on Saturday and $36 million on Sunday.
The PG-13 rated movie about a dystopian future in which children are forced to fight to the death in annual, televised "Hunger Games" as punishment for a rebellion years earlier, is Lionsgate's biggest release ever.