'The Hunger Games' effect: Business winners and losers
— -- Lionsgate stock is flying at an all-time high thanks to huge buzz for the upcoming The Hunger Games film, which opens in 4,000 theaters on Friday. Expectations for the movie to post a bigger opening than the first Twilight film drove the stock up as much as 9.5% higher on Monday morning alone. The film is expected to gross between $70 million and $100 million at the box office opening weekend.
All the ticket pre-sale numbers point to a massive opening.
Fandango says it's already sold out more than 1,000 showings, tracking ahead of Twilight's debut. www.Movietickets.com sold out about 900 screenings, half of which are for midnight screenings, which points to a devoted fan base. And the overall box office should get a boost from IMAX showings, which are a few bucks more expensive than screenings in a regular theater. Movietickets.com reports that 13%thirteen percent of all tickets sold are for IMAX screenings.
The big loser in Hunger Games' expected success? Carl Icahn. He sold his one-third stake of Lionsgate — some 44 million shares — for $7 each back in August. Now the company is trading at about double that. Based on the stock's current valuation he's lost out on about $300 million in value.
Copyright 2012 CNBC.com.
