The Hunger Games: Catching Fire breaks Thanksgiving record to take $110m

The second film in Suzanne Collins' series continues to ignite the box office

Glad hand: Stanley Tucci and Jennifer Lawrence in 'Hunger Games: Catching Fire' (AP)

The Hunger Games: Catching Fire has become the highest-grossing Thanksgiving film in history with a take of $110.2 million over the holiday weekend.

Suzanne Collins’ second instalment beat the previous record of $82.4 million, set by Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone over the same period in 2001.

Overall, The Hunger Games sequel has raked in $573 million worldwide and hit the top spot in numerous countries, including France, Belgium and Italy last weekend.

Jennifer Lawrence stars in Catching Fire alongside Liam Hemsworth and Josh Hutcherson. The Oscar-winning actress plays the courageous Katniss Everdeen, a heroine battling against dystopian rulers who force 24 youths to fight to the death on a television show.

The third book in the series, Mockingjay, is to be split into two films with the first due for release in November next year.

A new record was also set by Disney’s 3D animated musical Frozen, which earned $93 million over the five-day weekend to score the biggest Thanksgiving opening ever and the largest for Walt Disney studios.

Inspired by The Snow Queen fairytale, Frozen tells the magical story of a Scandinavian princess on a mission to find her sister, a queen who is unintentionally destroying their kingdom with the power to freeze anything she touches.

Disney’s action film Thor: The Dark World dropped into third place, grossing $11.1 million in ticket sales over the weekend, while Universal's romcom The Best Man Holiday held fourth with $8.5 million. Thriller Homefront starring James Franco and Jason Staham entered in fifth after taking $7 million.