Here’s today’s latest casting news:

• Michelle Monaghan is the latest addition to Chris Columbus’ Pixels as the female lead.  Adam Sandler, Peter Dinklage, Kevin James, and Josh Gad also star.
• Gwendoline Christie will replace Lily Rabe in The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2.
• Amy Ryan and Jillian Bell have signed on for Rob Letterman’s Goosebumps adaptation, starring Jack Black, Dylan Minnette, and Odeya Rush.

Hit the jump for more on each picture.

It was far from a record-breaker, but Divergent did manage to break the box office curse that has doomed most young adult adaptations over the last two years.  Divergent brought in an estimated $56 million on its debut weekend, which was right in line with pre-release expectations.  It was a different story for fellow new releases Muppets Most Wanted and God’s Not Dead.  While the Muppet sequel underperformed with $16.5 million, the independent Christian film pulled off a surprise top five finish and earned over $8.5 million from just 780 locations.

It’s hard not to be impressed by blockbusters right now.  2013’s top three films were The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, Iron Man 3 and Frozen.  All good to great movies.  Catching Fire proved the most successful of the lot, grossing well over $400 million, and even outperformed the first film.  Jennifer Lawrence stars as Katniss Everdeen, who is forced to compete in a battle royale yet again in the savage Quarter Quell with Peeta Mellark (Josh Hutcherson) at her side, and with her love Gale Hawthorne (Liam Hemsworth) watching from a distance.  My review of The Hunger Games: Catching Fire follows after the jump. 

Available today on Blu-ray, DVD, and digital download is director Francis Lawrence’s sequel The Hunger Games: Catching Fire.  While some were wary about a new director taking over the insanely popular franchise from Gary Ross, Lawrence turned in a pleasantly surprising and thrilling feature that stood head and shoulders above most of the big studio tentpoles released last year.  In anticipation of the film’s home video release, we here at Collider are happy to debut an exclusive clip from the bounty of bonus features included on the Blu-ray.  This particular clip focuses on how the Catching Fire team turned a parking garage into the impressive training compound in the film.  The sequel stars Jennifer Lawrence, Donald Sutherland, Liam Hemsworth, Josh Hutcherson, Jena Malone, Sam Claflin, Elizabeth Banks, Woody Harrelson, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Stanley Tucci, Jeffrey Wright, and Amanda Plummer.

Hit the jump to watch the bonus features clip. The Hunger Games: Catching Fire is available on home video now.

A deleted scene has been released from the upcoming Blu-ray/DVD for The Hunger Games: Catching Fire as well as another deleted scene from Thor: The Dark World.  The Catching Fire scene has Sam Claflin explaining how his learning to tie a noose in less than ten seconds ultimately went to waste, and while this scene does show more of his character Finnick Odair being charming, I can understand why it was left on the cutting room floor.  As for the scene from Thor, it’s a brief fight between Thor (Chris Hemsworth) and some Asgardian guards, and that’s about it.

Hit the jump to check out the deleted scenes.  Click here to pre-order The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, which will be released on March 7th.  Thor: The Dark World is now available to own, and you can click here to go buy it.

Yesterday, we reported that Philip Seymour Hoffman had one week left to film on The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2, but we didn’t know the importance or length of that material.  Today, THR reports that Hoffman had “one major, emotional scene left to film”, but as a Lionsgate executive tells the trade, “we’re going to have a couple of work-around issues but the movie will be creatively whole. His performances in both [remaining] movies will be up to the best of his craft. We feel it will be a good tribute to him.”  The final installment of the blockbuster series is still schedule to be released on November 20, 2015.

Hit the jump for possibilities on these “work-around issues”.

Yesterday, we reported the sad and shocking news that Philip Seymour Hoffman had died.  In addition to leaving behind friends, family, and an astounding body of work, Hoffman was also in the middle of multiple projects.  His half-hour comedy series Happyish had just been ordered to series by Showtime, and he was filming on The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2.  According to sources close to the production, Hoffman had mostly completed his work as Plutarch Heavensbee on Mockingjay – Part 1, but still had seven days left to film on Mockingjay – Part 2.

We don’t know what scenes he had left to shoot, nor do we know the importance of those scenes to the picture.  In the book, Heavensbee is an important character, but he’s not a major one.  Whatever the case may be, the production has found a way to continue, and Mockingjay – Part 1 and Mockingjay – Part 2 will still meet their original release dates of November 21st and November 20, 2015, respectively.

In keeping with the theme of The Hunger Games franchise posters, the new logo for The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1 is pretty much what you expect, but no less striking for it.

Starring Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson, Liam Hemsworth, Jena Malone, Sam Claflin, Woody Harrelson, Elizabeth Banks, Jeffrey Wright, Julianne Moore, Philip Seymour Hoffman, and Donald Sutherland, The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1 opens in theaters November 21st.  Hit the jump to check out the full poster.

Though 2013 was filled with plenty of superhero and blockbuster films that did solid business at the box office, it appears that Katniss has come out the victor.  Lionsgate announced today that The Hunger Games: Catching Fire has now grossed $409.4 million domestically, which surges past Iron Man 3’s $409.0 million total to make Catching Fire the top grossing film of 2013.  That’s quite an impressive feat considering Catching Fire didn’t enjoy the 3D surcharge that other top grossing 2013 films like Man of Steel and Despicable Me 2 did.  In fact, Catching Fire and Fast & Furious 6 are the only films in 2013’s Top 10 highest grossers that didn’t play in 3D.  Catching Fire’s worldwide total now stands at an astounding $832.2 million, and it’s the first film with a solo female lead to take the top box office spot since 1973′s The Exorcist.  Here’s hoping Catching Fire‘s success is a sign of things to come.  The series continues with this November’s The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1.

For more on 2013′s box office, be sure to check out our resident math genius Brendan’s latest installment of Cinemath, which features a fascinating and in-depth look at last year’s box office.  Read the full press release after the jump.

This week on The Collision, the release and success of The Hunger Games: Catching Fire has us talking about the adaptation of young adult novels, recent flops Beautiful Creatures and The Mortal Instruments, if there’s any room for next year’s Divergent to be a success, and much more.  As always, we finish up with our recommendations (and we’re recommending books!)

Click here to listen to the new episode of The Collision, click here for the previous episode (“State of the Oscar Race, November 2013”), click here to add the podcast to your RSS, and click here to find us on iTunes. To keep up to date with The Collision, you can follow us on Twitter at @MattGoldberg, @AdamChitwood, and @DrClawMD (Dave Trumbore).

The Hunger Games: Catching Fire surprised no one by setting a new record for a November opening.  Earning an estimated $161.1 million from 4,136 locations, the high-profile sequel easily topped the previous record of $142.8 million, set by The Twilight Saga: New Moon in 2009.  Perhaps more significantly, Catching Fire also managed to place fourth on the list of all-time domestic debuts, putting it ahead of both The Dark Knight and The Dark Knight Rises.

Here is what the top ten looks like, as of this morning:

Analysis and this weekend’s top ten after the jump.

Like many others I presume, I can reduce my yesterday down to one common denominator: waiting. Waiting for my Xbox One to arrive in the mail, waiting for the “Day One” update to wrap-up, waiting for Call of Duty: Ghosts to install to my hard drive, waiting for Ghosts‘ mandatory 1Gb update to complete. All told, it was about a two and a half hour process from the time my console arrived at my door until I was able to fire my first virtual shot. Although I’d be lying if I said the delays weren’t tedious, at the end of the day it was absolutely worth it. Microsoft’s next-gen console isn’t perfect, but its ambition and by-and-large its initial execution are pretty damn impressive. Controlling the console via voice commands with Kinect is way smoother than I expected it to be. Directing my satellite television via the console is a feature that I believe, when mastered, I’ll wonder how I ever lived without. And that seems to be the general idea of the Xbox One: to make you reconsider what a video game console can and should do. Even if all of the pieces aren’t in place yet to make it a “must have” (I expect a steady barrage of software updates in the coming days, weeks, months, etc.), I’m having too much fun with it right now to care.

My initial Xbox One impressions aside, this week’s Top 5 includes The Hunger Games: Catching Fire interviews with Jennifer Lawrence and more, Dave’s Out of the Furnace set visit recap, Christopher Nolan strapping an IMAX camera to a Learjet for Interstellar, Delivery Man interviews with Vince Vaughn and more, and a new trailer for Lars Von Trier‘s Nymphomaniac that you’ll likely only feel halfway guilty for watching. Per the drill, a brief recap and link to each of the above rests after the jump.

Now playing in traditional theaters and IMAX is the sequel to The Hunger Games, Catching Fire.  Directed by Francis Lawrence, the film centers on President Snow (Donald Sutherland) trying to crush a budding rebellion that was ignited by Katniss’ (Jennifer Lawrence) actions in the previous film, as the 75th Hunger Games (aka Quarter Quell) finds past victors competing against each other.  The sequel also stars Liam Hemsworth, Josh Hutcherson, Jena Malone, Sam Claflin, Elizabeth Banks, Woody Harrelson, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Stanley Tucci, Jeffrey Wright, and Amanda Plummer.

At the recent Los Angeles press day, I got to speak with Donald Sutherland.  He talked about what makes The Hunger Games so popular around the world, what it was like collaborating with Francis Lawrence, deleted scenes, what he collects, the way he prepares for a role, future projects, and more.  Hit the jump to watch.

On its first day in 4,136 locations, The Hunger Games: Catching Fire took in an estimated $70.5 million, including $25.25 million from its Thursday night previews.  That is higher than the $67.2 million The Hunger Games earned from its opening in March 2012 as well as the $68.8 million of Iron Man 3.  For weeks, those two films have guided weekend projections for Catching Fire, with the sequel expected to land somewhere between the $152.5 million of its predecessor and the $176.1 million of IM3.

This morning, however, expectations have been scaled back a bit.  Catching Fire is now targeting a more modest $152 million through Sunday, or about $15 million less than originally expected.  Of course, anything above $142.8 million would still be enough to strip The Twilight Saga: New Moon of its record for the biggest November opening of all time.  But, considering that it has been an article of faith that the sequel would top its predecessor, the fact that that is now in doubt qualifies as a surprise.  Check back tomorrow to see how it all plays out.

Now playing in traditional theaters and IMAX is the sequel to The Hunger Games, Catching Fire.  Directed by Francis Lawrence, the film centers on President Snow (Donald Sutherland) trying to crush a budding rebellion that was ignited by Katniss’ (Jennifer Lawrence) actions in the previous film, as the 75th Hunger Games (aka Quarter Quell) finds past victors competing against each other.  The sequel also stars Liam Hemsworth, Josh Hutcherson, Jena Malone, Sam Claflin, Elizabeth Banks, Woody Harrelson, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Stanley Tucci, Jeffrey Wright, and Amanda Plummer.

At the recent Los Angeles press day, I got to speak with Claflin and Malone.  They talked about what makes The Hunger Games so popular around the world, the costumes, what it was like collaborating with Francis Lawrence, deleted scenes, and much more.  Hit the jump to watch.