Hunger Games Midnight Box Office

Hunger Games Midnight Box Office, Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence) and Gale Hawthorne (Liam Hemsworth) in ‘The Hunger Games’. “The Hunger Games” is No. 1 with an arrow. Fans flocking to the midnight showings drove the film to a $19.7 million start at the box office, according to Lionsgate, the studio behind the film. That makes it the highest non-sequel midnight opening in history, and the seventh highest ever.

“The Hunger Games” is set in a dystopian future where 12- to 18-year-olds fight to the death for the amusement of the capital city of an unrecognizable America – a battle in which heroine Katniss (Jennifer Lawrence) finds herself a competitor.

The book trilogy by Suzanne Collins has 26 million copies in print in the U.S. alone, and the movie adaptation has become a pop culture phenomenon. Fans have been camping out for days across the country to catch a glimpse of Lawrence and co-stars Josh Hutcherson and Liam Hemsworth at premieres and autograph signings.

Industry insiders are projecting the film will easily pass the previous March opening record set by 2010’s “Alice in Wonderland’s” $116.1 million.

It’s also a legitimate threat to “The Twilight Saga’s” highest opening weekend haul, the $142.8 million notched by 2009’s “New Moon.”

The all-time record, held by “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2,” which earned $169.1 million in its first weekend, last year is expected to remain intact.

New Hunger Games Trailer

New Hunger Games Trailer, Jennifer Lawrence portrays Katniss Everdeen in a scene from “The Hunger Games,” set for release on March 23.  The Mockingjay has landed.

With just 50 days away until “The Hunger Games” hits theaters, Lionsgate released a new trailer for the eagerly awaited first installment in the trilogy based on Suzanne Collins’ trilogy.

Set in a dystopian future where 12- to 18-year olds in the outlying districts are subjected to a lottery to produce 24 “tributes” that have to battle to the death for the ammusement of the capital city of Panem, “The Hunger Games” introduces straight-shooting (so to speak) heroine Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence) to moviegoers.

The minute-long clip shows more of Katniss volunteering to go to certain death in the games in place of younger sister Primrose (Willow Shields). It sets up the love triangle involving Katniss’ hunting partner Gale (Liam Hemsworth) and her fellow “Hunger Games” competitor Peeta (Josh Hutcherson) that will be at heart of the trilogy.

The trailer also gives a cool look at the capital city of Panem, a hive of scum and villainy in the books that makes Mos Eisley look like Disneyland.

“Be stronger than they are,” says Gale in the clip.

“There are 24 of us, Gale, only one of us comes out,” answers Katniss.

Hunger Games Trailer

Hunger Games Trailer, The trailer for ‘The Hunger Games” has hit the web.

Movie adaptations of beloved books are a weird thing. The first time you see real images created of a novel that had previously only existed in your head, it’s hard not to want to reject them. Especially with a book like “The Hunger Games,” which feels like a personal discovery when you read it, it almost seems like a violation to see scenes torn from the pages and transformed into images–and even more so when those pictures don’t quite match what we imagined.

The new movie has a great cast–the stars include Jennifer Lawrence, Donald Sutherland, Stanley Tucci and Lenny Kravitz–but I wonder if some of the boys in the film (Liam Hemsworth and Josh Hutcherson) seem a bit too mature and studly for their roles. The horror of the book in part came because the Hunger Games forced kids to battle to the death. It feels a little different when the participants look like superheroes. If Hemsworth and Hutcherson were in MMA, nobody would be outraged. Those lads can take care of themselves.

Peter Jackson’s “Lord of the Rings” and the Harry Potter series got it right–what was on the screen seemed to represent what was on the page. In the case of “The Lord of the Rings,” some liberties were taken–there was no Tom Bombadil, no scouring of the Shire, etc.–but everything seemed defensible.

“The Golden Compass,” “Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events,” and “The Cat in the Hat” (the 2003 version with Mike Myers) are examples of book adaptations that were, as my 9-year-old son might put it, “epic fails.” It’s hard to watch any of those films without the antibodies created from when we first read the books continually rejecting what’s on screen.

Perhaps this is all part of the reason J. D. Salinger never let Hollywood phonies mess with “The Catcher in the Rye.” Because it remains unadapated, unconquered, it stays in our heads, unsullied by outside interpretation. “Catcher’s” Holden Caulfield has nothing but contempt for the screenwriting profession. As he says about his brother, once a promising writer, “Now he’s out in Hollywood, D.B., being a prostitute.”