Lions Gate’s ‘Hunger Games’ Leads Box Office With $44.6 Million

The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes opened as the top film in US and Canadian theaters, taking in ticket sales of $44.6 million for cinema owners and its studio, Lions Gate Entertainment Corp.

The sales, reported Monday by Comscore Inc., were on the lower end of Box Office Pro’s projection of $42 million to $55 million and came in well short of previous Hunger Games films, raising questions about whether the blockbuster series adapted from novels by Suzanne Collins can connect with today’s younger generations.