Fandango, the online ticket selling service, accounted for 22% of the $155 million opening weekend gross of The Hunger Games. Out of all the tickets the company sold over the weekend, 90% were for the post-apocalyptic action movie.
Fandango, who just teamed up with Yahoo! to sell movie tickets, offered a rundown of their all-time best selling movies:
1.”The Hunger Games” (2012) – 22%
2. “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2″ (2011) – 19%
3. “The Twilight Saga: New Moon” (2009) – 18%
4. “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 1” (2010) – 17%
5. “Sex and the City” (2008) – 16%
Bypassing lines and buying tickets on the internet has been gaining popularity. Fandango’s General Manager Rick Butler made a statement:
Fandango’s record- breaking percentage of the film’s opening weekend is a testament to the growing popularity of online and mobile ticketing as the way to go to the movies. It’s rare to see the first film in a franchise performing like an established sequel, but ‘The Hunger Games’ is a true phenomenon. Fans have given it our highest ‘Must Go!” rating, with Web and mobile ticket sales still going strong on Sunday.
While the box office of The Hunger Games set records, some predict that James Cameron’s rerelease of Titanic in 3D on April 4th will set the bar higher.