Did the 'Hunger Games' Beat 'Harry Potter' Record at the Opening Weekend?

The highly anticipated film adaptation of Suzanne Collins best-selling novel hit the cinemas last March 23 and by the weekend it garnered a few more "Hunger" crazed fans to hit the cinemas.

Gary Ross's directed film ranked third in the biggest box opening which is enough to say that the "Hunger Games" lit the world on fire - literally. Yet, was "The Girl on Fire" able to beat "The Boy Who Lived"?

The film takes place on a post-apocalyptic North American country called Panem where twelve districts "offer" up 12 tributes to fight to the death. "Winter's Bone" star Jennifer Lawrence plays the female lead Katniss Everdeen and Josh Hutcherson as the male tribute, Peeta Mellark. While a few call it the English version of the popular Japanese film "Battle Royale", the death scenes were as not so much as bloody compared to the latter yet it still garnered quite the attention both from readers of the books and from those simply curious to see it on the big screen.

According to the Box Office Mojo, the action-packed film grossed an estimated $155 million which ranks only a few numbers behind the final film to the "Harry Potter" series which was at $169.2 million. Though Katniss Everdeen loses only a few steps behind to Harry Potter, the film manages to hold the highest-grossing movie for the Lionsgate Studio. In addition to that, "The Hunger Games" holds the highest March opening which used to be a spot that Tim Burton's "Alice in Wonderland" had earned with $116 million.

"Hunger Games" might not have beaten "Harry Potter" but the dystopic film managed to beat "Twilight Saga: New Moon's" $142 million weekend and The-Numbers.com is already betting it will beat "Twilight Saga: Eclipse's" $300 million box office performance as well. So given all the number crunching, "The Hunger Games" three-day worldwide haul comes down to a whopping $214.3 million.

While fans are still hitting the cinemas to watch the film once more, a few are patiently waiting for the sequel, "Catching Fire" which is slated for a November 2013 release. As for a quick rundown of the top 10 all-time opening weekend films, BoxOfficeMojo.com compiled the list below: