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EXCLUSIVE: Lionsgate and Francis Lawrence’s return to the Suzanne Collins franchise with a pic based on her prequel novel is looking like a $50M start on Nov. 17, which is in the vicinity of 2011’s Rise of the Planet of the Apes ($54.8M). While women 17-34 are indeed the hot demo for The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, it’s not excessively female as there is interest from males as well. The pic cost around $100M.
Lionsgate opted to stay the course with Songbirds and Snakes and not move the movie off the schedule due to the actors strike given the competitive advantage in the marketplace: Legendary/Warner Bros.’ Dune: Part Two jetted off the November schedule, giving Lionsgate access to more PLF screens. In addition, with a brand like Hunger Games, fans were already coming to this movie which touts a fresh face cast led by Tom Blyth and Rachel Zegler; a complete reboot of the franchise which through four movies has earned over $3 billion worldwide.
The Collins’ bestselling novel takes place 64 years before Jennifer Lawrence’s Katniss Everdeen and the events of the original books and films. Years before he would become the tyrannical President of Panem, the 18-year-old Coriolanus Snow’s (Blyth) is the last hope for his fading lineage, a once-proud family that has fallen from grace in a postwar Capitol. With the 10th annual Hunger Games fast approaching, the young Snow is alarmed when he is assigned to mentor Lucy Gray Baird (Rachel Zegler), the girl tribute from impoverished District 12. But, after Lucy Gray commands all of Panem’s attention by defiantly singing during the reaping ceremony, Snow thinks he might be able to turn the odds in their favor. Uniting their instincts for showmanship and newfound political savvy, Snow and Lucy’s race against time to survive will ultimately reveal who is a songbird and who is a snake.
The Netflix Rewatch Campaign in March 2023 generated enormous engagement, generating new TikTok videos posted about The Hunger Games that month, a threefold increase compared to February 2023. The new posts reached an estimated 83M TikTok users and amassed 17M engagements on the platform.
Across Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, The Hunger Games weekly new follower base increased +425% on average in the month of March. With stats like that, it made sense for Lionsgate to stay the course for the pic’s release in November.
The new movie also stars Peter Dinklage, Hunter Schafer, Josh Andrés Rivera, Jason Schwartzman, and Oscar winner Viola Davis. Realize that if the actors ink a new contract in the near future with studios, the skies the limit in regards to how much the box office can be puffed up; as the cast would be allowed to promote on social media and late night TV shows. Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, the spinoff of Harry Potter, had a $74.4M domestic start.
A new stage show of Hunger Games was just announced this week.
On the day of the pic’s theatrical release, Geffen Records will release the soundtrack. Last Friday marked the premiere of “The Hanging Tree,” the first song released from the soundtrack. In the upcoming film (a prequel to the original Hunger Games trilogy), audiences will witness the origin of the storied song when Lucy Gray Baird (Zegler) sings it for the very first time. Also heard in the second official trailer for The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes, “The Hanging Tree” has been passed down through generations and was previously performed by Katniss Everdeen in The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1.