Its' only the start of a strong opening weekend, and The Hunger Games: Catching Fire is proving to be huge. The sequel to the massively-popular franchise earned a spectacular $25.5 million from Thursday evening showtimes, which is up from Iron Man 3's $15.5 million gross on its Thursday night showtimes. While this number is huge for sure, one has to wonder if this will take away any potential business on Friday and have this fall short of its' predecessor on the weekend (the first movie opened at midnight only). Right now, its' anyone's guess.
10:00 PM update: Early grosses are reporting Catching Fire's friday numbers to be behind in its' predecessor, with Thursday's numbers hurting it a bit. Right now, early estimates show the sequel earning in the $140-145 million range, and a chance at the November opening record, which currently is owned by New Moon ($142.7 million). There's still a chance though that a boost in late-night shows could make it go higher.
