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Hunger Games kills at weekend box office
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Effie Trinket (Elizabeth Banks) and Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence) in "The Hunger Games."
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Murray Close
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"The Hunger Games" slaughtered at the box office this weekend, setting new records for film openings in March and for movies that aren't sequels.
The faithful adaptation of Suzanne Collins' bestseller took in $155 million in its debut weekend — the third best debut weekend ever.
Only the Harry Potter finale and "The Dark Knight" performed better in their debuts.
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By comparison, the first of the "Twilight" movies did only about half as well.
In second place was "21 Jump Street," followed by "Dr. Seuss' The Lorax." And while domestic dud "John Carter" may be drawing crowds overseas, its $5 million weekend take in North America was only good enough for fourth place.
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