Actually I'd say THG is more impressive given comparisons (first book beating all HP and Twilight).

I'm impressed with TDKR. I'm mildly disappointed with TR, but I've seen it happen too many times to be sympathetic towards the studio.

This is a good point and hard to argue with. Even if you adjust the older Harry Potter movies, only one is bigger than The Hunger Games and not by too much.

I would have guessed it would have taken another decade until a book out-grossed HP. HG added up at the end, and wasn't as surprising as it should have been, but it's still the most unanticipated massive opener I can think of since at least The Passion or Rush Hour 2.

The thing about The Avengers is that I always expected some movie like it to pull of this sort of run even if I greatly underestimated it until the end.

I wonder how 50 Shades will translate.

My estimated totals (with change):

The Dark Knight Rises - 440.4m (+31.6m)
Total Recall - 69.3m
DOAWK - 46.1m
Ice Age: Continental Drift - 159.7m (+6.3m)
The Watch - 36.9m (-1.1m)
Step Up Revolution - 36.1m (+2.4m)
Ted - 223.6m (+4.8m)
The Amazing Spider-Man - 261.6m (+4.6m)
Brave - 234.1m (+2.3m)
Magic Mike - 113.6m (-0.2m)
Moonrise Kingdom - 46.2m (+2.1m)
Beasts of the Southern Wild - 10.3m (+3.2m)
Savages - 48.5m (+0.9m)

Retiring:
To Rome with Love - 17.6m (+1.6m)
Tyler Perry's Madea's Witness Protection - 65.3m (+0.2m)

Hmm, our projection are more in line this time. I dont see The Dark Knight Rises missing $450 million, though. WB will push it there, if they have to.

Also, Beasts of Southern Wild will hang around for longer than you might think, no way it makes less than $12 million.

WB can't control how it holds especially as the PTA declines.

Southern Wild doesn't have that strong of a PTA anymore.