It’s clear that “The Hunger Games: Catching Fire” will be one of the year’s biggest movies. But just how high it will fly in its box-office opening this weekend isn’t so clear.
Pre-release tracking has Lionsgate’s sequel, starring Jennifer Lawrence as Katniss Everdeen, taking in between $160 million and $172 million. The higher tracking numbers go, however, the less reliable they become — and most analysts believe that if it’s off, “Catching Fire” will land above those estimates.
Part of that is based on the performance of the last two films that tracked this high.
Disney’s Marvel superhero sequel “Iron Man 3” posted the year’s biggest opening with $174 million in May, and “Marvel’s The Avengers” set the all-time mark for a three-day debut with $207 million in 2012.