The Hunger Games: Catching Fire Opened to a Massive $161.1 Million on Friday

Fans knew what movie they wanted to see when they went to the theater on Friday, and that movie was The Hunger Games: Catching Fire. The sequel to the hugely popular movie The Hunger Games enjoyed a $161.1 million opening weekend, only slightly behind Iron Man 3 which debuted at $174 million. Iron Man 3 still holds the record for the best opening weekend of 2013.

The Hunger Games: Catching Fire only had to compete with Vince Vaughn's new comedy Delivery Man, which only took a small chunk ($8.2 million) this weekend.

Paul Dergarabedian, a media analyst for Rentrack, talked about how Catching Fire has expanded both demographically, but also how it has improved as a film from the first Hunger Games. He says, "When the first film was released, there was this idea that it was going to appeal largely to young girl. But over time, it's skewing back toward male audiences. There's actually a lot of action, there's violence in the movie. It's crossing over to a much broader base."

The Hunger Games: Catching Fire stars Josh Hutcherson and Jennifer Lawrence as they are forced to travel back to the arena for the 75^th Hunger Games called the Quarter Quell. They will be competing against other tributes who won Hunger Game competitions in the past.

Will you be heading out to see The Hunger Games: Catching Fire this week? Let us know what you think about the movie in the comments!