Fans devour "The Hunger Games" at box office
(CBS News) Fans feasted on "The Hunger Games" at the box office this weekend. Movie-goers forked over $155 million - making it the third-highest debut ever and the most ever for a movie that's not a sequel.
If you didn't see the movie, you probably at least saw the lines for the movie. Many fans they were hard to miss, screaming for the highly-anticipated movie version of the first bestselling book in a set of three novels by Suzanne Collins.
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But "The Hunger Games" is not a teen throwaway. Most critics say the film lives up to the hype, and its star - Jennifer Lawrence - delivers.
"It's this great love story about good overcoming evil," Lawrence said, "and this girl that simply stands up for what's right when something is wrong."
"The Hunger Games" is not only getting good reviews, it's raking in the dough.
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Paul Dergarabedian, analyst for Hollywood.com, said, "People aren't just seeing 'The Hunger Games' once, they're going back because it's a really good movie, and people are inspired to go back and spend that hard-earned cash one more time."
The plot is touchy stuff: Teens killing teens for the amusement of adults in a post-apocalyptic world. But it has sparked the imagination, especially young girls, who see the female heroine, Katniss Everdeen, as a role model.
Samantha Cathcart, a 17-year-old fan, told CBS News, "I read the first book eight times, and the same with the second book."
Already a literary phenomenon, "The Hunger Games" is well on its way to becoming a cinematic one, too. If you're not a fan yet, don't worry, the target date for the sequel is some time in 2013.
To see Lee Cowan's full report, watch the video in the player above.
