The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes has broken a brand-new franchise box office record. The new movie takes place six decades before the events of the first four Hunger Games movies, following a young Coriolanus Snow (Tom Blyth) as he becomes a mentor to District 12 tribute Lucy Gray Baird (Rachel Zegler) during the 10th Annual Hunger Games. The movie, which was directed by franchise stalwart Francis Lawrence, is based on the prequel novel of the same name by Suzanne Collins.
Per Deadline, the Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes box office is set to add another $6 million at the domestic box office by the end of its fifth weekend, bringing its cumulative total to $145.4 million. It has landed at No. 2 on the box office chart for the third weekend in a row. Although it remains the lowest-grossing installment of the franchise so far, it is now the first to stay in the box office Top 2 for longer than four weeks.
How The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes Accomplished This Hunger Games Box Office Record
Because the Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes movie earned the lowest opening weekend of the entire franchise, the fact that it has displayed such a strong audience hold hasn’t yet allowed it to earn any more than even the lowest-grossing of the previous movies, Mockingjay – Part 2. However, it is nevertheless showing impressive staying power that could potentially continue for some time. Check out a comparison between Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes’ weekly rankings with the other Hunger Games movies below:
Title | Week 1 | Week 2 | Week 3 | Week 4 | Week 5 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
The Hunger Games | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 |
The Hunger Games: Catching Fire | 1 | 1 | 2 | 4 | 6 |
The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 5 |
The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 4 |
The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 2 |
There are many possible reasons that the movie has remained in the Top 2 for so long. The first is that the Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes cast was given special dispensation to promote the movie even during the tail end of the 2023 actors strike, giving them an advantage over other contemporary releases that didn’t have the same privileges. There is also the matter that the movie opened the weekend before Thanksgiving, at a time where there is usually a dearth of wide-release competition for at least a few weeks into December.
Every movie in the franchise has opened during the same holiday window, so they all had a similar opportunity to dominate into December. However, The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes has triumphed by exhibiting much more staying power than the following weekends’ releases. While Renaissance: A Film by Beyoncé and The Boy and the Heron opened at No. 1 on their respective opening weekends on December 1 and December 8, both dropped far enough in their second weekends to allow the young adult prequel to stay afloat at No. 2.
The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes
The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes is a prequel movie set 64 years before the events of the original movie with Katniss Everdeen. The film centers on a young Coriolanus Snow (Tom Blyth) and shows his rise to power as the leader of Panem. Taking place during the 10th Hunger Games, Snow is tasked with mentoring Lucy Gray Baird (Rachel Zegler), the tribute from District 12.
- Release Date
- November 17, 2023
- Director
- Francis Lawrence
- Cast
- Tom Blyth , Rachel Zegler , Hunter Schafer , Jason Schwartzman , Peter Dinklage , Josh Andrés , Josh Andrés Rivera , Viola Davis
- Rating
- PG-13
- Runtime
- 157 Minutes
- Genres
- Action , Adventure , Drama
- Writers
- Michael Lesslie , Michael Arndt , Suzanne Collins
- Studio(s)
- Color Force , Lionsgate
- Distributor(s)
- Lionsgate
- Sequel(s)
- The Hunger Games , The Hunger Games: Catching Fire , The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1 , The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2
- Franchise(s)
- The Hunger Games
