'The Hunger Games: Catching Fire' Kicks 'Thor 2' off American Box Office Lead

' The Hunger Games: Catching Fire' hasmanaged to top the American box office in its first week of release,just as expected, and the film earned $158 million, kicking thecomics-based Thor: The Dark World off the lead, which it kept for two consecutive weeks.

The opening of the ' The Hunger Games'sequel is now the fourth biggest film opening in the American boxoffice history, exceeded by The Avnegers, which earned $207 millionin 2012, Iron Man 3, with $174.1 million this year, and the last installation to the Harry Potter series The Deathly Hallows Part 2 in 2011 with $169.2 million.

In the second place came Thor: The Dark World in its third week in American theaters after adding $14.1million to its gross. The Best Man Holiday stepped back to number three as it earned $12.4 million this week.

Delivery Manentered the fourth position in its first week in American theaters, as it earned $7.9million from 3,036 theaters. The film is a comedy lead by Vince Vaughn, and it made an opening that was much less than previous Vaughn films like The Watch, The Internship and The Dilemma. The animation Free Birds also made on step back to number five, collecting $5.3 million this week.

Last Vegas landed at number six, adding $4.3 million to its total gross, while the critical and commercial success Bad Grandpa added $3.4 million, reaching a domestic gross of$95.4 million in its fifth week.

The highly acclaimed Gravity stepped back to number eight with $3.2 million, to reach a total gross of$245.5 million after eight weeks of theatrical release. 12 years a Slave earned $2.8 million, and Dallas Buyers Club followed with $2.6 million, pushing the film from number twelve to number ten this week.The film stars Matthew McConaugheyas an HIV patient trafficking illegal medications.