If you haven’t already bought your tickets for this weekend, good luck!
The Hunger Games opens in theaters Friday, but it’s already raking in millions.
The Hunger Games has already brought in $15 million in advance ticket sales, with more than 2,000 show times already sold-out.
Fandango’s top five all-time advance ticket sellers list has been shattered, with The Hunger Games passing the 7th movie in the Harry Potter franchise and The Twilight Saga: Eclipse, and is expected to pass up The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 1 by Thursday to claim the number three spot.
The advance ticket sells have given cinema and studio stocks a huge boost. It’s not clear whether the boost is sustainable, but ticket sales for The Hunger Games are critical. It is the first in a three-part book series that will likely turn into a four-part movie franchise, if it is anything like its predecessors the Harry Potter series and the Twilight saga.
But people aren’t going to see The Hunger Games to help the numbers. They’re going because The Hunger Games isn’t like anything else we’ve seen for awhile.
The Hunger Games isn’t the next series geared towards love-struck teenagers. It has its share of handsome men, but they aren’t really the true heroes of the flick.
Katniss Everdeen, played by Jennifer Lawrence, is the heroine here, and the social commentary of the film goes way beyond mythical creature vs. mythical creature.
The film takes place in the near future in what “used to be” North America. Twelve districts are ruled by one heartless, self-righteous Capitol. The Hunger Games is an annual event in which 24 of the nation’s teenagers are chosen at random, one boy and one girl from each district, to vie for their lives. Only one can win.
The rest of the nation is forced to watch The Hunger Games on television, and like any good reality show there are plenty of behind-the-scenes manipulations to make “reality” seem a little bit more exciting.
Sure, there is a love triangle. But that’s really not the point of the film.
Katniss Everdeen, the fearless no-nonsense girl from District 12, volunteers as the Tribute in her sister’s place, and has to leave behind her home and a best friend for whom she may or may not have feelings. The male tribute is the boy that saved her life as a child. You can probably make the connections of the love triangle from there.
The bloody battles, man-made death traps, apocalyptic dystopian society, and totalitarian government make The Hunger Games the darkest social commentary geared towards teens, at least in recent history.
The Hunger Games can only be described as something you have to see, and read, to fully understand. You’ll have your chance this weekend: that is, if you bought your tickets in advance.
