The Hunger Games: Odds are definitely in their favour...

So, if the figures are anything to go by, Katniss Everdeen is never going to go hungry again. The Hunger Games has had the fifth best opening day ever, earning a ridiculous $68.3 million. In fact, this is the best opening day ever for a non-sequel - pretty impressive when you think about it. After today, The Hunger Games is likely to have taken in $150 million (maybe more) over its opening weekend, meaning that not only will the film make it into the top five biggest opening weekends ever, but also that it has beaten every single Twilight movie into the ground like a tent peg.

The Hunger Games has gone stellar so quickly for three very simple reasons:

1. It's based on a series of bestselling books

If there's one thing film producers have learned in the new millennium, it's that if you manage to get hold of the rights to a series of already bestselling books, especially Young Adult bestselling books, you may as well open that offshore bank account right now before you've even got anything to put in it. You've got yourself a loyal fan base vacuum-packed and ready to go; it doesn't even matter if your film is actually any good, because they'll turn up and shell out for it anyway.

2. Katniss Everdeen/Jennifer Lawrence

After the awful mess that Bella Swan/Kristen Stewart got us into over at Twilight Towers, female film fans have been crying out for a decent heroine. Now, we can point to Katniss Everdeen/Jennifer Lawrence and yell "Look! We're not all clumsy sour-faced pencil-thin weaklings! We can do stuff too!" That stuff being sacrifice ourselves for others, save our families from starvation, incite rebellion in the districts, and be darn handy with a long-bow.

3. They've actually bothered to make this into a decent film

As pointed out above, due to the already strong fanbase built up by the books, The Hunger Games could very easily have got away with being bad. Many, many people would still have parted with their cash. But, being that it's actually very good as a film in itself, even without the books to back it up (see my review here), this means that even more people will be trooping along to the theatre to see what all the fuss is about.

All of which adds up to a ludicrously large amount of money for anyone who got in on the ground level. Perhaps Disney, after their recent haemorrhage over John Carter, could take a few tips from Lionsgate on this one.


PS. Just a small note to say that this is KINOLENS' 50th post! Huzzah.