Box Office: 'Catching Fire' Ablaze Friday With $70.5 Million

UPDATED: The sequel is set to score the top November opening of all time; "Delivery Man" could mark Vince Vaughn's worst nationwide launch for a movie opening in more than 1,000 theaters.

Lionsgate's sequel The Hunger Games: Catching Fire topped the Friday box office with a historic $70.5 million, one of the biggest opening-day grosses of all time in North America and putting the sequel back on course to match the $152.5 million earned by the first film in March 2012.

Catching Fire is also destined to score the top November opening of all time, eclipsing the $142.8 million earned by fellow YA film adaptation The Twilight Saga: New Moon. The movie, earning an A CinemaScore, marks another major victory for Lionsgate and is reaching a broader audience than Hunger Games did, with males making up 12 percent more of the audience.
Overseas, where it is rolling out in 65 markets, Catching Fire has already earned a stellar $64 million. The movie is doing double the business of Hunger Games overall, and is four times larger in Germany and nearly 40 percent bigger in Australia.
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In North America, many were confounded on Friday when Catching Fire trailed Hunger Games in matinee grosses. But by the time final numbers were tallied, the sequel had narrowly eclipsed the $67.3 million grossed by Hunger Games on its first Friday in late March 2012.
In its November slot, Catching Fire faces far more competition than Hunger Games did, including Thor: The Dark World, which is heading into its third weekend. The first Hunger Games also had the advantage of opening during the spring break corridor.
In 2012, Hunger Games topped out at $408 million domestically and $283.2 million internationally for a global total of $691.2 million; Catching Fire is expected to do substantially more. By Sunday alone, the movie could cross
$300 million in global ticket sales.

Directed by Francis Lawrence, the sequel returns Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson and Liam Hemsworth in the lead roles. Woody Harrelson, Donald Sutherland, Stanley Tucci, Elizabeth Banks, Lenny Kravitz, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Jeffrey Wright, Sam Claflin and Jena Malone also star.
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Simon Beaufoy and Michael deBruyn wrote the screenplay, adapting it from the Suzanne Collins best-seller.
The weekend's only other new nationwide entry is Delivery Man, starring Vince Vaughn. The $22 million DreamWorks dramedy, grossing a tepid $2.7 million on Friday to place No. 4, may open in the $8 million range for the weekend, marking the worst nationwide opening of the actor's career for a film debuting in excess of 1,000 theaters (excluding cameos).
The film's modest budget minimizes the financial risk for DreamWorks and partner Disney. Moviegoers liked the dramedy -- about a sperm donor who fathers 500 children -- better than critics, giving in a B+ CinemaScore.
Elsewhere at the box office, Disney's decision to open Thanksgiving animated entry Frozen at the El Capitan theater in Los Angeles before the family film opens everywhere on Thanksgiving eve is paying off. Frozen grossed $66,498 on Friday.