LIONS GATE STOCK DOUSED AS CATCHING FIRE IGNITES BOX OFFICE

In what appeared to be a classic case of “buy on the anticipation, sell on the news,” shares of Lions Gate Entertainment plunged 10.5 percent on Monday following word that The Hunger Games: Catching Fire set a November weekend record at the box office. The stock continued to soften in early trading today (Tuesday) as final figures indicated that the movie earned nearly $3 million less on Sunday than the studio had estimated, bringing the total gross for the weekend to $158.1 million, down from the $161.1 million that Lionsgate had figured it would earn. (Sunday’s studio estimates for the weekend are based on actual ticket sales for Friday and Saturday and an educated guess about sales for Sunday.) Coming in a distant second was Disney/Marvel’s Thor: The Dark World with $14.2 million, followed in third place by Universal’s Best Man Holiday with $12.5 million. Delivery Man, from DreamWorks and Disney, was dead on arrival in fourth with just $7.9 million. Rounding out the top five was Relativity’s Free Birds with $5.4 million. Despite the huge opening for Catching Fire, the overall box office was up only 8 percent over a year ago, when The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn — Part Two led with $43.6 million in its second week. But last year’s box office for the comparable weekend was less top-heavy than it was this year inasmuch as it fell during the four-day Thanksgiving holiday.