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.

Hunger Games Review

Hunger Games Review, “It didn’t surprise me, which was good,” Jennifer Lawrence told MTV News of her first viewing of “The Hunger Games.” We suppose that makes sense, seeing as Lawrence is the face of the YA adaptation and that the responsibility of bringing heroine Katniss Everdeen to the screen is, dauntingly, hers alone. But we confess, it did surprise us. There were pitfalls aplenty for director Gary Ross.

He could have succumbed to “Twilight” fever and played up the story’s simmering-in-the-background love triangle. Cowering in awe or fear of the series’ million of fans, he could have been excessively deferential to the source material, declining to expand the “Hunger Games” world beyond Katniss’ first-person narration. Or, more simply, Ross could have just made a crappy movie.

None of that came to pass. Our worries were unfounded. In “Hunger Games,” Ross has given us not only a kickass adaptation of a beloved book, but a kickass movie, full stop — an opinion shared not only by MTV News and Lawrence but by the vast majority of critics. Read on for a deep dive into “The Hunger Games” reviews.

“The greatest triumph of ‘The Hunger Games’ is Ross’ rich realization of the book’s many worlds: District 12 is painted as a reminiscent Southern mining town, haunting and vibrant; The Capitol is a utopian metropolis obsessed with design and flair; and the Hunger Games battleground is a sprawling forest peppered with ‘Truman Show’-esque additions. …

For fans, the script hits every beat, a nearly note-for-note interpretation of author Suzanne Collins’ original novel — but those unfamiliar shouldn’t worry about missing anything. Ross knows his way around a sharp screenplay (he’s the writer of ‘Big,’ ‘Pleasantville’ and ‘Seabiscuit’), and he’s comfortable dropping us right into the action.” — Matt Patches, Hollywood.com
” ‘The Hunger Games’ works almost better as a movie than a book; its pacing is slightly and effectively altered (the movie’s a little more than half over by the time the Games actually start), its visuals striking, its close-in filming style parallels the intimacy of the first-person book. And it carefully walks a difficult line: How do you tell an essentially violent story without glorifying that violence?” — Moira Macdonald, The Seattle Times
“As Katniss, the extravagantly talented Jennifer Lawrence renders her character with surgical precision. Her defiance against the Hunger Games’ overlords is instinctual. Her stoic composure in the face of danger doesn’t come so naturally; when it slips we see the vulnerable girl clearly.

Lawrence delivers an absolutely assured performance but she’s hardly the whole show. As her fellow competitor Peeta, Josh Hutcherson moves persuasively along an arc that begins in conflicted feelings and deepens to friendship, loyalty and love. Donald Sutherland is subtle and sinister as President Snow. … Stanley Tucci makes a vile, vampire-like impression as the Games’ on-air master of ceremonies, sporting a navy blue 17th-century periwig and pearly, carnivorous teeth.” — Colin Covert Minneapolis Star Tribune

Romney Etch A Sketch

Romney Etch A Sketch, Republican presidential candidate, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney addresses an audience during a campaign stop at an American Legion post in Arbutus, Md., Wednesday.
Has Mitt Romney’s campaign inadvertently provided opponents the perfect phrase with which to attack the former Massachusetts governor? That’s the question in the wake of the “Etch A Sketch” comment by senior Romney aide Eric Fehrnstrom on CNN.
Asked whether Mr. Romney had moved too far to the right for the general election, Mr. Fehrnstrom said that the GOP hopeful would hit a reset button for the fall campaign. “It’s almost like an Etch A Sketch,” he said. “You can kind of shake it up and restart it all over again.”

For Romney, Sketch-gate has overshadowed what should have been the triumphant aftermath of an Illinois primary victory. Romney’s primary opponents immediately seized upon the image of an erasable toy to project their doubts about the depths of Romney’s conservatism. Both Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich held up Etch A Sketches at rallies on Wednesday.

“Team Romney says if Mitt is GOP nominee, he’ll hit reset button for gen election. Where does that leave conservatives?” tweeted Mr. Santorum on Thursday.

Conservative activists who have long resisted Romney’s likely nomination bemoaned the fact that it is only now, so late in the game, that they have found an analogy that perfectly expresses their doubts about his beliefs.

“We’ve been at a loss to encapsulate our opposition into a one-liner; a bumper sticker,” wrote Daniel Horowitz on the conservative RedState blog on Thursday. “After all, it takes copious pages of ink to explain the extent of Romney’s hypocrisy on the issue of healthcare alone. Yet, late in the 11th hour of the campaign, when it’s probably too late to make a difference, we have finally discovered our symbol that exemplifies Romney.”

If nothing else, perhaps now the Romney team will stop demanding that the right get on board their train and provide some reasons to believe that Romney’s conservative positions won’t get shaken off like a kid’s drawing in September, Mr. Horowitz said.

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.