LOS ANGELES, USA (AP) — Movie fans have chosen real violence over the slapstick variety as The Hunger Games held off The Three Stooges to remain the number one weekend movie.

Lionsgate’s The Hunger Games, the blockbuster about teens competing in a televised fight to the death, stayed on top for a fourth-straight weekend with US$21.5 million. That raises the film’s domestic total to US$337.1 million.

“I think a couple of weeks ago, if someone had told us where we’d be, we would have said, ‘We’d like to see that number, but it would be a pleasant surprise.’ So we’re in that pleasant surprise spot at this point,” said Richie Fay, head of distribution for Lionsgate.

Peter and Bobby Farrelly’s slapstick update The Three Stooges opened in second place with US$17.1 million, according to studio estimates yesterday.

That was well above industry expectations of around US$10 million for the 20th Century Fox update starring Chris Diamantopoulos as Moe, Sean Hayes as Larry and Will Sasso as Curly.

Fox executives had figured the movie would appeal mainly to young males. But it also pulled in older men who grew up on the Stooges and a fair number of women and girls as whole families turned out to see it, said Chris Aronson, the studio’s head of distribution.

“If you’re predisposed to open your mind, it’s a laugh riot,” Aronson said.

The acclaimed horror tale The Cabin in the Woods debuted in third place with US$14.9 million. A smart, twisting take on the genre produced and co-written by Joss Whedon (Buffy the Vampire Slayer), the long-delayed Cabin in the Woods had been one of the films caught up in MGM’s bankruptcy but was finally released by Lionsgate.

On the 100th anniversary of the ship’s sinking on April 15, 1912, the 3-D version of James Cameron’s Titanic sailed past the US$2 billion mark worldwide.

Titanic is just the second blockbuster to top US$2 billion, trailing only the next film Cameron made — the sci-fi sensation Avatar, which took in US$2.8 billion.

Domestically, Titanic held the No. 4 spot with US$11.6 million. The 3-D rerelease has taken in US$44.4 million domestically to lift the film’s lifetime total to $645.2 million.

Titanic also pulled in $88.2 million in 69 overseas markets, including a huge $58 million 3-D debut in China. That brought the 3-D reissue’s overseas total to $146.4 million and the worldwide sum for re-release to $190.8 million.

Added to the $1.84 billion take from the original release of the 1997 hit, Titanic has climbed to a lifetime total of about $2.03 billion.