BLACK FRIDAY WAS GREEN AT BOX OFFICE

With shopping malls packed on Black Friday, just about every film in the top ten more than doubled the amount it brought in on Thursday, when those malls were virtually barren. Demonstrating once again how dependent the film industry is on the vitality of the general retail trade — movie multiplexes are the anchor tenants at virtually every major shopping mall — Lionsgate’s The Hunger Games: Catching Fire soared 110 percent from Thursday, hauling in an estimated $31.3 million. With schools out for the Thanksgiving holiday weekend, Disney’s animated family film Frozen recorded an even greater jump of 142 percent as it iced second-place with $26.9 million. Its per-theater average of $7,177 was just 4 percent behind Catching Fire‘s $7,507. Coming in a distant third was Thor: The Dark World with $4.5 million, up 118 percent from Thursday. Universal’s The Best Man Holiday followed with $3.4 million, up 144 percent, while Disney’s Delivery Man rounded out the top five with $2.7 million, up 91 percent.