Anticipation is growing for the March 23rd release of The Hunger Games.  IMAX is showing the film on 270 screens in North America, and with the midnight Thursday shows selling out, IMAX is adding 3am screenings on Friday morning.  This latest news comes on the heels of previous reports that advance ticket sales for The Hunger Games broke the record set by The Twilight Saga: Eclipse in 2010 during their first day of availability (see “Hunger Games Breaking Records”).

 

Tracking polls indicate that there is great awareness of and interest in The Hunger Games movie from teens (see “Huge Opening for Hunger Games”), and most box office analysts believe that the film will post the best opening weekend numbers of 2012 so far.  With over 3 million copies of Suzanne Collins’ Hunger Games novel in print, the movie will have a built-in audience. 

 

Will this movie adaptation directed by Gary Ross (Seabiscuit, Pleasantville) be able to expand the audience for the film beyond the book’s devoted following of YA readers?  That is the big question when trying to determine whether The Hunger Games will be able to rival The Twilight Saga.  It is clear that whatever success The Hunger Games has will be measured against the performance of the remarkably consistent Twilight Saga movies.  Now that Lionsgate, which is distributing The Hunger Games, has merged with Summit Entertainment, which produced The Twilight Saga films, both properties are on the same team as it were, though their similar origins as YA blockbusters that appealed primarily (though not exclusively) to girls will make comparisons inevitable.

 

If the movie is a hit there is quite a bit of Hunger Games merchandise. WizKids has strategy, card, and miniature games (see “WizKids ‘Hunger Games’ Products”); parent NECA has pretty much everything, up to and including Hunger Games light bulbs (see “Toy Fair 2012 Pics”).