Development of a film adaptation of Collins's original novel began in March 2009 whenLionsgate entered into a co-production agreement withColor Force, which had acquired the rights a few weeks earlier. As the novel is written in Katniss'first-person point of view, its screenplay develops ancillary characters and locations for the film. Ross was confirmed as director in November 2010 and the rest of the main cast was rounded out by May 2011. Principal photography began that month and ended that September, with filming primarily taking place inNorth Carolina.
The Hunger Games premiered at theNokia Theatre inLos Angeles on March 12, 2012, and was released in the United States on March 23, by Lionsgate.[6] The film received generally positive reviews from critics, with praise for its themes and messages, Lawrence's performance, and faithfulness to the source material, although there was some criticism for its use ofshaky cam and editing. It grossed $695.2 million, setting the then-records for both the opening day and opening weekend gross for a non-sequel, becoming theninth-highest-grossing film of 2012.
Panem is adystopian,post-apocalyptic nation divided into twelve districts ruled by the Capitol. As punishment for a failed rebellion 74 years earlier, each district must annually select two tributes, a boy and a girl between the ages of 12 and 18, to fight to the death in the Hunger Games until only one survivor remains. The event is televised nationwide.
Katniss Everdeen lives in District 12 with her younger sisterPrimrose. When Primrose is selected for the 74th Hunger Games, Katniss volunteers to take her place. She and her fellow district tribute,Peeta Mellark, are escorted to the Capitol, accompanied by mentorHaymitch Abernathy, the only living victor from their district. Haymitch stresses the importance of gainingsponsors, as they can provide resources during the Games. During a televised interview, Peeta confesses he loves Katniss, which she initially sees as an attempt to attract sponsors; she later learns his feelings are genuine.
When the Games start, half of the tributes are killed in the initial brawl for supplies around a central structure called the Cornucopia. Katniss flees into the forest, but thecareer tributes (volunteers from the wealthier Districts 1 and 2 who trained for years for the Games) — Marvel, Glimmer, Cato, and Clove — track her down; she climbs a tree in desperation. Peeta, seemingly allied with the Careers, suggests they wait her out. Hiding in the next tree,Rue, the District 11 girl, attracts Katniss's attention to a nest of poisonous tracker jackers (genetically-modifiedwasps) above her; she cuts a branch, dropping the nest on the sleeping Careers. Glimmer is killed, but the others escape. Katniss retrieves Glimmer's bow and arrows, but is disoriented from tracker-jacker venom. Peeta returns, urging her to flee before escaping from the Careers.
Later, Rue finds Katniss, helps her recover, and they become friends. Rue distracts the Careers while Katniss destroys a supplies stockpile with mines. Marvel finds and kills Rue before Katniss shoots him dead. She comforts Rue with song and, after Rue's death, decorates her body with flowers, sparking a riot in District 11.
Panem presidentCoriolanus Snow is greatly displeased with how things are turning out — the Games are designed to dissipate dissent, not focus it — and warnsSeneca Crane, who runs the Games, to "be careful". Haymitch persuades Crane to allow two victors if they are from the same district, suggesting it would appease the audience.
Katniss finds Peeta severely wounded and takes him to a cave. When it is announced that what each survivor needs most will be provided at the Cornucopia, Katniss leaves to get medicine for him despite his protests. She is ambushed and pinned by Clove, who gloats about Rue's death. Before Clove can kill her,Thresh, District 11's male tribute, appears and kills Clove. He spares Katniss once for what she did for Rue. The medicine heals Peeta overnight.
While hunting, Katniss hears a cannon blast signaling a death. She rushes to Peeta, who unknowingly collected deadly nightlock berries. They find the District 5 girl dead from eating the berries after secretly watching Peeta. With only four tributes remaining, Crane unleashes genetically-engineered dog-like Mutts, which kill Thresh.
Katniss, Peeta, and Cato, the last survivors, flee to the roof of the Cornucopia. Cato holds Peeta hostage until Katniss shoots his hand, enabling Peeta to push Cato down among the Mutts. Katniss then shoots Cato dead in acoup de grâce. Suddenly, Crane revokes the two-victor rule change. Peeta urges Katniss to shoot him, but she suggests they eat nightlock berries instead and deprive the Capitol of a winner. Just before they can, Hunger Games announcer Claudius Templesmith declares them co-victors.
Afterward, Haymitch warns Katniss about the powerful enemies she has made. Snow has Cranelocked in a room containing only nightlock berries.
In March 2009,Lions Gate Entertainment (known as Lionsgate) entered into a co-production agreement forThe Hunger Games withNina Jacobson's production companyColor Force, which had acquired worldwidedistribution rights to the novel a few weeks earlier,[8][9] reportedly for $200,000.[10]Alli Shearmur and Jim Miller, president and senior vice president of motion picture production at Lionsgate, took charge of overseeing the production of the film, which they described as "an incredible property ... a thrill to bring home to Lionsgate".[11] The studio, which had not made a profit for five years, raided the budgets of other productions and sold assets to secure a budget of $88,000,000 for the film.[12][10][13]Suzanne Collins' agent Jason Dravis remarked that "they [Lionsgate] had everyone but the valet call us" to help secure the franchise.[13] Lionsgate subsequently acquiredtax breaks of $8 million for shooting the film inNorth Carolina.[13]Gary Ross,Sam Mendes,David Slade,Andrew Adamson,Susanna White,Rupert Sanders andFrancis Lawrence were listed as possible directing candidates, but in the end, Ross was announced as the film's director in November 2010.[14][15] Ross became interested in directing the film after his agent notified him about that a film adaptation ofThe Hunger Games was in development; having heard about the book due to his children reading it, Ross read the book quickly and called his agent to tell her that he wanted the job.[16]
Ross had many conversations with Collins about how to adapt the story, and was fascinated by howAncient Roman culture inspired the books.[16] Collins adapted the novel for film herself,[8] in collaboration with screenwriterBilly Ray and Ross.[17][18] The screenplay remains extremely faithful to the original novel,[19] with Ross saying he "felt the only way to make the film really successful was to be totally subjective", echoing Collins' presentation of the novel in thefirst personpresent.[20] Ross felt that, to preserve the novel's first person point of view, the audience could know little more than what protagonistKatniss Everdeen knows about the story's developments.[16] Instead of presenting Katniss'internal monologues about the Capitol's machinations through actualmonologues orvoice-over narrations, the screenplay expanded on the character of Seneca Crane, the Head Gamemaker, to allow several developments for which Katniss is not present to be shown directly to the audience. Ross explained, "In the book, Katniss speculates about the game-makers' manipulations ... in the film, we can't get inside Katniss's head, but we do have the ability to cut away and actually show the machinations of the Capitol behind the scenes. I created the game centre and also expanded the role of Seneca Crane for those reasons. I thought it was totally important."[20] Ross also added several scenes between Crane andCoriolanus Snow, the elderly President of Panem, noting that "I thought that it was very interesting that there would be one generation [of Panem citizens] who knew that [the Games] were actually an instrument of political control, and there would be a successive generation who was so enamoured with the ratings and the showbiz and the sensations and the spectacle that was subsuming the actual political intention, and that's really where the tension is".[21]
The Gamemakers' control center, about which Katniss can only speculate in the novel, was also developed as a location, helping to remind the audience of the artificial nature of the arena. Ross commented, "so much of the film happens in the woods that it's easy to forget this is a futuristic society, manipulating these events for the sake of an audience. The look of the control center, the antiseptic feeling of it and the use of holograms were all intended to make the arena feel 'constructed' even when you weren't seeing the control room."[20] Ross andvisual effects supervisor Sheena Duggal were keen to use the omniscient view that the setting provided to justify the literaldei ex machina Katniss experiences in the arena; Duggal explained that "we really didn't want to have to explain things ... how do you get compelled by these [animals] that just appear at the end of the movie? We wanted to find a way to introduce them without having to explain specifically and exactly what they were and the game room was a really great opportunity for us to be able to do that."[22]
Josh Hutcherson also dyed his hair for the role of Peeta Mellark.
Ross had a general idea of who he wanted to cast in some roles, but the studio insisted on holding auditions for the roles, which he accepted. He found the castings ofKatniss Everdeen,Peeta Mellark and Gale Hawthorne "honestly easy".[16] Lionsgate confirmed in March 2011 that about 30 actresses auditioned or read for the role of Katniss Everdeen, includingHailee Steinfeld,Abigail Breslin,Emma Roberts,Alyson Stoner,[23]Saoirse Ronan,Chloë Grace Moretz,Jodelle Ferland,Lyndsy Fonseca,Emily Browning,Shailene Woodley,Kaya Scodelario andTroian Bellisario.[4][24] On March 16, 2011, it was announced thatJennifer Lawrence (who was at the time filming forX-Men: First Class) had landed the role.[25] Feeling that Lawrence "blew the doors off the place",[16] Ross described Lawrence as having "an incredible amount of self-assuredness, you got the sense that this girl knew exactly who she was. And then she came in and read for me and just knocked me out; I'd never seen an audition like that before in my life. It was one of those things where you just glimpse your whole movie in front of you."[22]
Though Lawrence was 20 when filming began, four years older than the character,[26] Collins said that the role demanded "a certain maturity and power" and said she would rather the actress be older than younger.[27] She added that Lawrence was the "only one who truly captured the character I wrote in the book" and that she had "every essential quality necessary to play Katniss".[28] Lawrence, a fan of the books, was originally intimidated by the size of the production, and took three days to accept the role.[4][29] The producers wanted Lawrence to lose weight for the role, but she refused as she didn't want to become a bad role model for young girls.[30]
Fireman's Fund Insurance Company insured the production, but as part of theunderwriting process, insisted on a thorough risk analysis of hazards as diverse as wayward arrows, poison ivy, bears, bugs and a chase across fast-running water.[36]
Lawrence dyed her naturally blonde hair dark for the part of Katniss.[37] Other stars who dyed their hair for the movie include Josh Hutcherson as Peeta and Liam Hemsworth as Gale.[4] Lawrence also underwent extensive training to get in shape for the role, includingarchery, rock and tree climbing, combat, running,parkour andyoga.[38] On the last day of her six-week training phase, she had an accident in which she hit a wall while running at full speed, but was not seriously injured.[4] Lionsgate hired Olympic bronze medal-winning archerKhatuna Lorig to teach Lawrence how to shoot.[36]
With an initial budget of $75 million,[39]principal photography began nearBrevard inTransylvania County inWestern North Carolina in May 2011[40] and concluded on September 15, 2011, with a final budget reported as between $90 and $100 million, reduced to $78 million after subsidies.[4]Steven Soderbergh served as asecond unit director,[41] and filmed much of the District 11 riot scene.[42] The movie was shot on film as opposed to digital, due in part to the tightness of the schedule; as Ross said in an interview withThe New York Times, "I didn't want to run the risk of the technical issues that often come with shooting digitally—we simply couldn't afford any delays."[43]
Virtually all production photography took place inNorth Carolina, with Lionsgate receiving tax credits of around $8 million from the state government to do so.[citation needed] Most outdoor scenes, both from the arena and from the outskirts of District 12, were filmed inDuPont State Forest; theLittle River, with its multiple waterfalls, provided several locations for shooting the river running through the arena.[44] To run acrossTriple Falls, Lawrence was attached to wires and ran on a board.[45]
Many of the urban and interior locations, in the Capitol and elsewhere, were filmed inShelby andCharlotte; other scenes were filmed in theAsheville area.[46][47] Ross andproduction designer Phil Messina drew on the buildings of the1939 New York World's Fair and symbols of political power includingTiananmen Square andRed Square, when designing the Capitol architecture, which they wanted "to be set in the future but have a sense of its own past ... it's festive and alluring and indulgent and decadent but it also has to have the kind of might and power behind it".[48][49] For Katniss' neighborhood in District 12, the production team usedHenry River Mill Village, an abandoned mill town which Ross said "just worked perfectly for the movie to evoke the scene"; Messina explained that "originally we talked about maybe building one house and the facade of the house next door and redressing it, and maybe doing some CG extensions ... we ended up finding a whole abandoned mill town ... it was absolutely perfect".[49]
For the costume design,Judianna Makovsky and her crew looked at photographs of coal mining districts from the 1950s, in the search of an "American" feel.[50] The idea was to create clothing unique for every character, and to strongly differentiate the people in Capitol and in districts.[51] Grey and blue prevailed in the color palette for the District, while the people in Capitol were chosen to look bright in theatrical hats, flowers, ruffles, with powdered and eyebrowless faces.[50]
Danny Elfman andT-Bone Burnett were initially recruited to score music forThe Hunger Games, with Burnett also acting as the film's executive music producer to produce songs for the soundtrack.[56] However, due to scheduling conflicts,James Newton Howard replaced Elfman as the music composer.[57] Arcade Fire also contributed to the score album, who composed the fascistic-inspired Panem national anthem, "Horn of Plenty", aleitmotif appearing throughout the film.[58][59] The score album was released on March 26, 2012.[60]
The film was released in North America and the Netherlands on DVD andBlu-ray Disc on August 18, 2012.[61] Extras includeThe World is Watching: Making The Hunger Games, numerous featurettes, the propaganda video in its entire form, a talk with the director Gary Ross and also Elvis Mitchell and a marketing archive.[62]
In its first weekend on sale, Lionsgate reported that 3.8 million DVD/Blu-ray Disc copies of the movie were sold, with more than one-third in the Blu-ray Disc format.[63] Three weeks after the release of the movie to home media formats in the US, over 5 million DVD units and 3.7 million Blu-ray Disc units have been sold.[64][65] With 10,336,637 units sold by the end of the year, it became the top-selling video of 2012.[66] The entireHunger Games series was released on4K UHD Blu-Ray on November 8, 2016.[67]
The Hunger Games earned $408 million in the United States and Canada, and $286.4 million in other countries, for a worldwide total of $695.2 million.[5]
In North America,The Hunger Games is the 22nd-highest-grossing film, the highest-grossing film released outside the summer or holiday period,[68] and the highest-grossing film distributed by Lionsgate.[69]Box Office Mojo estimates that the film sold more than 50 million tickets in the US.[70] At the time of its release, the film set a midnight-gross record for a non-sequel ($19.7 million), the tenth-highest midnight gross overall.[71] On its opening day, it topped the box office at $67.3 million (including midnight showings), setting opening-day and single-day records for a non-sequel. The film also achieved the sixteenth-highest opening-day and nineteenth-highest single-day grosses of all time.[72][73][74] For its opening weekend, the film earned the No. 1 spot and grossed $152.5 million, breakingAlice in Wonderland's opening-weekend records for a film released in March, for any spring release, and for a non-sequel at the time of its release.[69][75][76][77] On its second day of release, the film had surpassedFahrenheit 9/11 to becomeLionsgate's highest-grossing film worldwide, a record that would later be surpassed by its sequelThe Hunger Games: Catching Fire a year later.[78] Its opening weekend gross was the third highest of 2012 behindThe Avengers ($207.4 million) andThe Dark Knight Rises ($160.8 million) as well as the largest for any film released outside the summer season and the eighth-largest overall.[79] The film held the March and spring opening weekend records for four years until they were broken byBatman v Superman: Dawn of Justice.[80] It remained in first place at the North American box office for four consecutive weekends, becoming the first film sinceAvatar to achieve this.[81][82][83] On June 10, 2012 (its 80th day in theaters), it became the 14th movie to pass the $400-million-mark.[84] On April 20, 2012, Lionsgate andIMAX Corporation announced that due to "overwhelming demand",The Hunger Games would return to North American IMAX cinemas on April 27 for a further one-week engagement.[85]
Outside North America, the film was released in most countries during March and April 2012,[86] with the exception of China, where it was released in June 2012.[87] On its first weekend (March 23–25, 2012), the film topped the box office outside North America with $59.25 million from 67 markets, finishing at first place in most of them.[88] The largest opening weekends were recorded in China ($9.6 million),[87] Australia ($9.48 million), and the UK, Ireland and Malta ($7.78 million).[86][89] In total earnings, its highest-grossing markets after North America are the UK ($37.3 million), Australia ($31.1 million) and China ($27.0 million).[86]
Also in its release,The Hunger Games broke the record for first-day advance ticket sales onFandango on February 22, 2012, topping the previous record ofThe Twilight Saga: Eclipse. The sales were reported to be 83 percent of the site's totals for the day.[90] According to first tracking, unaided awareness forThe Hunger Games was 11%, definite interest was 54%, first choice was 23% and total awareness was 74%.[91] In the week leading up to its release, the film sold-out over 4,300 showings via Fandango and MovieTickets.com[92] On Fandango alone, it ranks as the third-highest advance ticket seller ever, behindThe Twilight Saga: New Moon andHarry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2.[93] According to Fandango, it broke the site's single-day sales record (March 23), the mobile sales record for a weekend ( March 23–25, 2012) and the site's highest share of a film's opening weekend (Fandango sold 22% of the film's opening weekend tickets).[94]
Thereview aggregator websiteRotten Tomatoes reported an approval rating of 84% with an average score of 7.3/10, based on 315 reviews. The website's critical consensus reads, "Thrilling and superbly acted,The Hunger Games captures the dramatic violence, raw emotion, and ambitious scope of its source novel."[95]Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 68 out of 100 based on 49 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".[96] Audiences polled byCinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A" on an A+ to F scale.[97]
Several critics have reviewed the film favorably and compared it with otheryoung adult fiction adaptations such asHarry Potter andTwilight, while praising Jennifer Lawrence for her portrayal as Katniss Everdeen, as well as most of the main cast. According toThe Hollywood Reporter, Lawrence embodies Katniss, "just as one might imagine her from the novel".[98]Empire magazine said "Lawrence is perfect as Katniss, there's very little softness about her, more a melancholy determination that good must be done even if that requires bad things."[98] Justin Craig ofFox News rated the film as "[e]xcellent" and stated: "Move over Harry Potter. A darker, more mature franchise has come to claim your throne."[99] Rafer Guzman ofNewsday referred toThe Hunger Games as being "darker than 'Harry Potter,' more sophisticated than 'Twilight'."[100] David Sexton ofThe Evening Standard stated thatThe Hunger Games "is well cast and pretty well acted, certainly when compared withHarry Potter's juvenile leads".[101]
Roger Ebert of theChicago Sun-Times gave the film three stars out of four, praising the movie as "effective entertainment" and Lawrence's performance. Despite a largely positive review, he criticized the film for being too long and noted that the film misses opportunities for social criticism.[102] Simon Reynolds ofDigital Spy gave the film four stars out of five, calling it "enthralling from beginning to end, science fiction that has depth and intelligence to match its pulse-racing entertainment value". Reynolds also spoke highly of Lawrence's performance and director Gary Ross, whose "rough and ready handheld camerawork" meant that viewers were "with Katniss for every blood-flecked moment of her ordeal in the combat arena".[103] However, film critic David Thomson of the magazineThe New Republic called it a "terrible movie", criticizing it for a lack of character development and unclear presentation of the violence, describing the latter as "un-American".[104]
Eric Goldman ofIGN awarded the film four out of five stars, stating that director Gary Ross "gets the tone of The Hunger Games right. This is a grounded, thoughtful and sometimes quite emotional film, with its dark scenario given due weight. Ross doesn't give the film a glossy, romanticized 'Hollywood' feel, but rather plays everything very realistically and stark, as Katniss must endure these outrageous and horrible scenarios."[105] The film received some criticism for itsshaky camera style, but it was said to "add to the film in certain ways".[105] The violence drew commentary as well.Time critic Mary Pols considered that the film was too violent for young children, even though the violence had been toned down compared with the novel,[106] while critic Théoden Janes ofThe Charlotte Observer found that "[...] the violence is so bland it dilutes the message".[107] Also writing inTime, psychologist Christopher J. Ferguson argued that parents' fears of the effect of the film's violent content on their children were unnecessary, and that children are capable of viewing violent content without being psychologically harmed.[108]
In 2025, it was one of the films voted for the "Readers' Choice" edition ofThe New York Times' list of "The 100 Best Movies of the 21st Century," finishing at number 326.[109]
Interpretations of the film's themes and messages have been widely discussed among critics and general commentators. In his review forThe Washington Times, Peter Suderman expressed that "[m]aybe it's a liberal story about inequality and the class divide. Maybe it's a libertarian epic about the evils of authoritarian government. Maybe it's afeminist revision on the sci-fi action blockbuster. Maybe it's a bloody satire of reality television", but concludes the film only proposes these theories and brings none of them to a reasonable conclusion.[110]
Reviewers and critics have differing views on whether the film represents feminist issues. Historically, among the "top 200 worldwide box-office hits ever ($350 million and up), not one has been built around a female action star".[111]Manohla Dargis ofThe New York Times sees Katniss Everdeen as a female hero following in the lineage of "archetypal figures in the literature of the American West" such asNatty Bumppo, as well as characters portrayed by American actors such asJohn Wayne andClint Eastwood.[112] Katniss is also seen as defying normative gender roles: she exhibits both "masculine" and "feminine" traits equally.[112] Dargis also notes that Katniss is a female character with significant agency: "Katniss is a fantasy figure, but partly what makes her powerful—and, I suspect, what makes her so important to a lot of girls and women—is that she's one of the truest feeling, most complex female characters to hit American movies in a while. She isn't passive, she isn't weak, and she isn't some random girl. She's active, she's strong and she's the girl who motivates the story."[112] Similarly, Shelley Bridgeman ofThe New Zealand Herald wrote that because the characteristics of "athleticism, strength, courageousness and prowess at hunting" are not given to a male protagonist, but to Katniss, her character is an abrupt departure from the stereotypical depiction of women as being innately passive or helpless.[113] Mahvesh Murad ofThe Express Tribune said that the film's triumph is "a young female protagonist with agency", comparing her withJoss Whedon'sBuffy Summers.[114]
The film has drawn varying interpretations for its political overtones, including arguments in favor ofleft-wing,right-wing, andlibertarian viewpoints. Bob Burnett ofThe Huffington Post observed the film displays a general distrust of government, regardless of the audience's political party affiliation.[115] Steven Zeitchik and Emily Rome, in theDallas Morning News, also stated that some viewers formed an opinion aboutThe Hunger Games as aparable of theOccupy Wall Street activity.[116]The Huffington Post reported thatPenn Badgley, a supporter of Occupy Wall Street, saw the film as a social commentary on the movement.[117] Burnett also states that "Collins doesn't use the terms 1 percent and 99 percent, but it's clear that those in the Capitol are members of the 1 percent and everyone in the Panem districts is part of the 99 percent".[115]
Steven Zeitchik and Emily Rome, in theLos Angeles Times and theDallas Morning News reported that, among other disparate interpretations, some viewers sawThe Hunger Games as a Christianallegory.[118][116] Jeffrey Weiss of Real Clear Religion, published in theStar Tribune, has remarked on what he saw as the intentional absence of religion inThe Hunger Games universe, and has commented that, while the stories contain no actual religion, people are "find[ing] aspects that represent their own religious values" within it.[119]
During the film's opening weekend, controversial statements about various members of the cast arose, sparking open dialogue about issues of racism, sexism and unrealisticbody image. Comparisons were also made betweenThe Hunger Games premise of children killing each other, and the child soldiers of theLord's Resistance Army led byJoseph Kony.[139][140][141] In aJezebel article published March 26, 2012, Dodai Stewart reported that several users on Twitter posted racist tweets, criticizing the portrayals of Rue, Thresh and Cinna by African American actors.[142][143] In a 2011 interview withEntertainment Weekly, Collins stated that while she did not have any ethnic background in mind for lead characters Katniss and Gale because the book is written in "a time period where hundreds of years have passed" and there would be "a lot of ethnic mixing", she explains "there are some characters in the book who are more specifically described", and states that both Rue and Thresh are African American.[144] Lyneka Little ofThe Wall Street Journal states that although it is easy to find bigoted or offensive postings online, "the racist 'Hunger Games' tweets, because they are so shockingly ignorant even by the standards of the fringes of the internet, have kicked up a storm".[145]
Fahima Haque ofThe Washington Post,Bim Adewunmi ofThe Guardian, and Christopher Rosen ofThe Huffington Post all reiterate the fact that Rue and Thresh are described inThe Hunger Games as having dark brown skin, as well as Collins's assertion that they were intended to be depicted as African Americans.[142][146][147] Adewunmi remarked that "it comes to this: if the casting of Rue, Thresh and Cinna has left you bewildered and upset, consider two things. One: you may be a racist—congrats! Two: you definitely lack basic reading comprehension. Mazel tov!"[147] Erik Kain ofForbes saw the controversy as a way to appreciate the value of free speech. He states that while society may never be free of racism, "racist comments made on Facebook and Twitter quickly become public record. Aggregations of these comments, like the Jezebel piece, expose people for what they are. Sure, many hide under the cloak of anonymity, but many others cannot or choose not to. And as the internet becomes more civilized and its denizens more accountable, this sort of thing carries more and more weight."[143] Amandla Stenberg responded to the controversy with the following statement: "As a fan of the books, I feel fortunate to be part of The Hunger Games family ... It was an amazing experience; I am proud of the film and my performance. I want to thank all of my fans and the entire Hunger Games community for their support and loyalty."[148] Dayo Okeniyi was quoted saying "I think this is a lesson for people to think before they tweet" and "It's sad ... We could now see where society is today. But I try not to think about stuff like that."[149]
A number of critics expressed disappointment in Lawrence's casting as Katniss because her weight was not representative of a character who has suffered a life of starvation. Manohla Dargis, in her review of the film forThe New York Times, stated "[a] few years ago Ms. Lawrence might have looked hungry enough to play Katniss, but now, at 21, her seductive, womanly figure makes a bad fit for a dystopian fantasy about a people starved into submission".[150] Todd McCarthy ofThe Hollywood Reporter said that, in certain scenes, Lawrence displays "lingering baby fat".[151] These remarks have been rebuked by a number of journalists for pushing unrealistic body image expectations for women.[152]
L.V. Anderson ofSlate states that, "[j]ust as living in a world with abundant calories does not automatically make everyone fat, living in a dystopian world like Panem with sporadic food access would not automatically make everyone skinny. Some bodies, I daresay, would be even bigger than Lawrence's."[153] Since none of Lawrence's male co-stars have come under the same scrutiny, Anderson concludes that complaints about Lawrence's weight are inherently sexist.[153]MTV asked for responses from audiences on the controversy and reported that most found criticism of Lawrence's weight "misguided".[154] One response pointed to Collins's physical description of Katniss inThe Hunger Games novel which reads: "I stand straight, and while I'm thin, I'm strong. The meat and plants from the woods combined with the exertion it took to get them have given me a healthier body than most of those I see around me."[155]Los Angeles Times writer Alexandra Le Tellier commented that "[T]he sexist commentary along with the racist barbs made by so-called fans are as stomach-churning as the film's cultural commentary, which, in part, shines a light on the court of public opinion and its sometimes destructive power to determine someone else's fate".[156]
The film has been rated 12A by theBritish Board of Film Classification (BBFC) in the UK for "intense threat, moderate violence and occasional gory moments".[3] To achieve that rating, Lionsgate had to cut or substitute seven seconds of film by "digitally removing blood splashes and the sight of blood on wounds and weapons."[157] The uncut version was ultimately released on Blu-ray in the UK with a 15 certificate.[158] In the United States, the film was granted aPG-13 rating from theMotion Picture Association of America (MPAA)[159] for "intense violent thematic material and disturbing images—all involving teens"; as Collins had originally anticipated.[160]
Screening ofThe Hunger Games was delayed indefinitely in Vietnam.[161] The film was to be released on March 30, 2012, but, according to a member of the Vietnamese National Film Board, the Board considers the film to be too violent and unanimously voted for the indefinite delay. It was later banned.[162]
On August 8, 2011, while still shooting the film, Lionsgate announced that a film adaptation of the second novel inThe Hunger Games trilogy,The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, was scheduled to be released on November 22, 2013.[173] In November 2011, Lionsgate entered negotiations with screenwriterSimon Beaufoy to adapt the novel for screen, since the post-production schedule forThe Hunger Games was too crowded for Ross and Collins to adapt the next film as originally planned.[174]The Hunger Games: Catching Fire began production in the summer of 2012.[175] Gary Ross did not return forCatching Fire, and insteadFrancis Lawrence directed the film.[176] On May 6, 2012, it was reported thatMichael Arndt was in talks to re-write the script forCatching Fire.[177] Arndt officially signed on as the new script writer on May 24, 2012.[178]The Hunger Games: Catching Fire began filming September 10, 2012, and concluded December 21, 2012;[179] it premiered in London on November 11, 2013,[180] before premiering on November 22, 2013, in the US as was originally scheduled.
^ab"How did you feel after seeing 'The Hunger Games'? Viewers say it sends multiple messages".The Dallas Morning News. March 31, 2012.Archived from the original on September 12, 2012. RetrievedApril 1, 2012.The Hunger Games, the teen action-adventure film that opened to big numbers last weekend, is, without question, a parable of the Occupy Wall Street movement. It's also a cautionary tale about Big Government. And undeniably a Christian allegory about the importance of finding Jesus. The New Testament content of the film is also hard to miss—at least according to those who home in on the triangle of main characters.
