[video]Dr. Seuss' The Lorax could help Hollywood finally take flight again.

The big screen version of the classic children's book was magic at the box office, bringing in more than $70 million in its opening weekend- making it the biggest opening so far this year.

"I think social media and overall word of mouth was very key to this release. You saw on Friday a strong box office performance but on Saturday the movie did much better up 80% which tells you that there was very, very positive word of mouth out there."

More than half of the revenue came from 3D screens- and 8 percent from IMAX- both of which command higher prices.

The popularity of the film far exceeded forecasts- helping propel the box office to its ninth straight weekly increase according to Hollywood.com.

Overall tickets beat out the same weekend last year by 26 percent- and so far in 2012 ticket sales are up 19 percent compared to last year.

And that could help grow other movie audiences as well.

"I think it's going to be interesting to see if this is turning into self feeding phenomenon where people go to the movies more and then see more trailers for films that they end up watching again. For Hollywood it's definitely a good trend right now because the more people that go to the movie theater the likelier they are to return when they see what else is coming up next. "

Which would make for a great comeback story come summer.