By Saba Hamedy

Los Angeles Times

(MCT)

Looks like box office odds are in the third “Hunger Games” installment’s favor.

“The Hunger Games: Mockingjay — Part 1” could open to between $130 to $160 million, according to people who have seen pre-release audience surveys.

That would make it the biggest launch of the year, edging out “Transformers: Age of Extinction” which pulled in $100 million in its opening weekend.

The Lionsgate film, which opens Nov. 21, is the opening installment of the two-part finale to the blockbuster franchise based on the bestselling young adult novels by Suzanne Collins.

Fandango, the nation’s largest online movie ticket company, said on Thursday that the upcoming installment has sold more first day advance tickets than any other movie in 2014 so far.

The film accounted for 80% of Fandango’s daily ticket sales on Wednesday, when advanced tickets became available for purchase. “Divergent,” another Lionsgate young adult franchise, set the previous 2014 record for Fandango.

“Mockingjay” also became MovieTickets.com’s top-selling title of the year. It sold more advanced tickets on Wednesday than “Catching Fire” sold on its first day of presales last year.

In 2012, “The Hunger Games” debuted with $155 million. It ultimately pulled in about $408 million in the U.S. and Canada.

“The Hunger Games: Catching Fire,” the second installment of the franchise, opened to $161 million in November 2013. It went on to gross nearly $425 million and took the No. 10 spot on the all-time U.S. box-office list, according to the Internet Movie Database.

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