Given the pedigree of the director and cast – a heady blend of veteran stars and up and comers – and the quality of the source material, it won’t come as a surprise that The Hunger Games film wowed fans of the book. What Lionsgate were hoping for though is that it also appealed to non readers.
The Twilight Saga has made over $3 billion in global box office and DVD sales, and there is still another film to be released. Harry Potter’s success has easily doubled that. So you can see why The Hunger Games’ success was so vital to Lionsgate. Their stock value has dropped alarmingly over the last few years, and market analyst James Marsh had this to say: ‘The Hunger Games could be the biggest catalyst for Lionsgate’s profits and share price during the next decade. It could be a game changer for them.’
Costing $80 million to make, Lionsgate wisely decided to tone down the violence to ensure it got a lesser rating – meaning potentially more people could see it. ‘We weren’t going to let the violence be gratuitous or the selling point of the franchise,’ said an executive from Lionsgate. ‘This is an emotional story about a young girl who sacrifices everything and sets off a revolution she never intended.’
Luckily, appeal to the mainstream it did.
Talking about sequels, Lionsgate head Jon Feltheimer said before the film came out: ‘The Hunger Games must hit $100 million in domestic box office sales to justify making sequels. I’m not too concerned we won’t get to that kind of number. There’s just too much heat for this property around the world.’
His view was correct, and a sequel is in the works. In fact, work on the sequel was underway long before the film even came out! On 16 November 2011, Deadline reported: ‘Lionsgate is getting serious about the second instalment of The Hunger Games. The mini-major is courting Oscar-winning Slumdog Millionaire scribe Simon Beaufoy to write Catching Fire, the second instalment of the three book series that tracks the life and death adventures of Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence). Aside from Slumdog Millionaire, Beaufoy also scripted 127 Hours, The Full Monty and most recently adapted Salmon Fishing in the Yemen.’
Gary Ross said: ‘I love the title Catching Fire, because from the moment Katniss was willing to eat the berries, the moment she was willing to give her life for something larger than herself, she set off a chain reaction that was at once bigger than her and also because of her. That’s a very exciting movie to make because you’re seeing the emergence of a leader. It’s the birth of a revolution so it has context that’s larger than just the Games themselves.’
Lawrence says about the sequel: ‘Signing onto the movies I was like: ‘Well, I’ll probably love the first one and then I’ll just want to get the rest of them out of the way,” she added. ‘But I can’t wait to start training. As soon as they said we’d need to start training in July, I was like “Woohoo!” I can’t wait to get back. Though I don’t know if that’s because I think we might shoot in Hawaii…’