opened in 63 other territories and earned $138.4 million during the weekend ($146.6 million including its first week in Brazil). Its three largest openings occurred in the UK, Ireland and Malta ($19.8 million), China ($13.0 million) and Germany ($12.9 million). In total earnings, its largest countries are the UK, Ireland and Malta ($55.5 million), Germany ($43.4 million) and Australia ($34.3 million). In North America, Catching Fire is the 30th-highest-grossing film, the highest-grossing film of The Hunger Games series, the highest-grossing film distributed by Lionsgate and the highest-grossing 2013 film. Box Office Mojo estimates that the film sold more than 50 million tickets in the United States and Canada. It became the first 2-D film since The Dark Knight (2008), as well as the first film with a female lead since The Exorcist (1973), to top the yearly box office. It is also the top-selling film in Fandango history, surpassing previous record-holder Avatar. The film earned $25.3 million during Thursday late-night showings. It topped the box office on its opening day with $71.0 million (including Thursday late-night showings), which is higher than its predecessor's opening-day gross ($67.3 million) and is also the seventh largest single-day and opening-day gross. During its opening weekend, The Hunger Games: Catching Fire claimed first place with $158.1 million, opening higher than its predecessor ($152.5 million). This was the sixth-highest-grossing opening weekend, the second-highest-grossing opening weekend of 2013 behind Iron Man 3 ($174.1 million), and the highest-grossing opening weekend in November, breaking the record set by The Twilight Saga: New Moon ($142.9 million) in 2009. The film held the November weekend record for nine years until it was topped in 2022 by Black Panther: Wakanda Forever ($180 million). It was in first place for two consecutive weekends. The film also broke the following records: the biggest Friday for a film in its second weekend, the largest three-day ($74.2 million) and largest five-day ($109.9 million) Thanksgiving gross. The latter two records would be held until 2019 when they were both surpassed by Frozen II. The film achieved the fifth-highest-grossing opening week (Friday-to-Thursday), the third-highest non-opening Wednesday and the fourth-largest second weekend. Critical responseThe Hunger Games: Catching Fire received very positive reviews from critics. Review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes gives the film a score of 90% based on reviews from 293 professional critics, with a rating average of 7.6/10. The website's critical consensus reads: "Smart, smoothly directed, and enriched with