Our apologies that weâve been taking a couple of weeks off to catch up on other things awards-related, but weâre going to tackle one of the movies weâve been shirking for far too long and that is the anticipated Lionsgate adaptation of Suzanne Collinsâ popular novel The Hunger Games. It opens on March 23 in a fairly quiet weekend along with the long-delayed Eddie Murphy movie A Thousand Words.
The book has been on the New York Times Bestseller list for over 100 consecutive weeks and has roughly 3 million copies in print worldwide, which isnât quite on par with Stephenie Meyerâs âTwilightâ books and nowhere even near the âHarry Potterâ books, but the people whoâve read the books certainly are very vocal about them, which is one of the reasons the movie is being made and why it has the potential to be a huge success.
Helming the adaptation is filmmaker Gary Ross, making his first movie since the Oscar-nominated Seabiscuit in 2003, which was only his second movie as a director. Itâs certainly a strange departure for Ross from his previous movies, both which starred Tobey Maguire, but like Bill Condon, who is currently directing the last chapter of âThe Twilight Saga,â Ross has the prestige of having helmed an Oscar-nominated movie which holds him in high regard with Hollywood even if he doesnât have the genre fanbase to help bring in that audience.
The biggest deal about The Hunger Games is the casting of Jennifer Lawrence as Katniss Everdeen, the 16-year-old girl who is forced to become a warrior in order to survive and save her family. Earlier this year, Lawrence was nominated for an Oscar for her performance in the indie drama Winterâs Bone, but then over the summer, she followed Rebecca Romijn as Mystique in Matthew Vaughnâs X-Men: First Class, which raised awareness of her even more.
Katniss has two love interests in the book and in the movie, theyâre played by two young actors who are likely to be the next Robert Pattinson and Taylor Lautner if they play their cards right. Playing Peeta Mellark, the teen who ends up in the Hunger Games with Katniss, is 19-year-old Josh Hutcherson, who has been acting from the age of 10 and getting bigger roles with each successive year, getting lead roles in movies like Little Manhattan, Jon Favreauâs Zathura, Disneyâs Bridge to Terabithia and New Lineâs 3D adventure Journey to the Center of the Earth â heâll be starring in the sequel to this in February without any of his co-stars from the previous movie. Hutcherson was also a part of the ensemble cast of Lisa Cholodenkoâs The Kids Are All Right, which won a number of awards including a Golden Globe. Playing Katnissâ childhood friend Gale is Liam Hemsworth, Thorâs little brother, who was cast opposite Miley Cyrus in the romantic drama The Last Song.
The cast is filled with a number of better-known actors playing beloved characters from the novels, including the likes of Elizabeth Banks, Woody Harrelson, Alexander Ludwig, Stanley Tucci, Donald Sutherland and Lenny Kravitz, as well as a few lesser-known actors, but the cast isnât really isnât that important to the filmâs success, because itâs more about translating whatâs on the page onto the screen as faithfully as possible.
The very first look at The Hunger Games took place during one of MTVâs awards shows where they debuted a teaser and âEntertainment Weeklyâ has been on the case in terms of premiering photos from the movie, both of them trying to be at the forefront of the âHunger Gamesâ promotion, just like they were with âTwilight.â The more recent full-length trailer seems to have been done more to inform non-readers of the story but it focuses more on the drama and romance than it does on the action that takes place in the arena, which means itâs preaching more to the converted than presenting something that might get non-readers excited.
There have been lots of great fansites and others offering round-the-clock support for the project, including my good friend Perri Nemiroffâs âHunger Games Countdownâ over at Movies.com, which takes a weekly look at whatâs going on around the ânet in terms of progress on the movies. I honestly have no idea how much traffic these sites get and if theyâre quite on par with some of the ones for âHarry Potter,â but theyâre clearly there to help keep the excitement going, especially with some of the viral campaigns that have popped up over the last few months.
Obviously, there are a lot of fans of the books who are very excited about this movie, and the only question is whether the movie will deliver something they can get behind when it comes to sequels, the first Catching Fire, which is already slated for a release in late 2013. More importantly, the movie should introduce many non-readers to Collinsâ books and if the books continue to sell, then it will allow the future movies to fare even better.
We think The Hunger Games will end up with around $55 to 58 million its opening weekend, but it should be able to get up to around $180 million or more if itâs anywhere near as good as the books and people start discovering it. Like the âTwilightâ sequels, the second movie Catching Fire should open significantly higher and probably do more business, as should the finale.
Next time, weâre going to look at an anticipated sequel to a hit comedy franchise coming out next April.
