I’ve heard stories about movies that were so big on opening day that theaters would actually keep screenings going twenty four hours to satisfy demand.
This is probably what’s going to happen with The Hunger Games, even though a lot of young adults going to see it probably won’t be allowed to stay up all night to watch it.
There have already been reports of screenings selling out a month in advance, and now Variety reports, there are Imax screenings being added for three in the morning on 270 Imax screens.
Of course, many fans of the series will want to catch the first show at midnight, and the chairman of Imax, Greg Foster, told Variety, “With two weeks to go, we have seen substantial midnight sell outs in Imax theaters across the country, leading exhibitors to being offering 3 a.m. shows to meet demand.”
It’s also being reported that The Hunger Games will play for a week on Imax screens, but I wouldn’t be surprised if demand kept it going longer. The Hunger Games also had its premiere this week in Hollywood, and producer Nina Jacobson, who was formerly an executive at Disney said, “The level of exitement and anticipation take me back to the Pirates of the Caribbean premieres when I was at Disney. I barely believe it. And it’s astonishing that we’re here three years after we started.”
With The Hunger Games less than two weeks away from release, TG found at least one primer on the story, a Hunger Games For Dummies article if you will, and also stories that discuss the main character, Katniss, as a feminist role model for young women. And as this blog post was being finalized, the first reviews for The Hunger Games finally came in.
Variety wrote, the film was “proficient, involving, ever faithful to its source, this much-anticipated, nearly 2 ½ hour even picture [Games runs 142 minutes] should satiate fans, entertain the unititated and take an early lead among the year’s top grossing films.”
Yet in the face of near-certain commercial success, no one seems to have taken the artistic gambles that might have made this respectable adaptation a remarkable one.” Meanwhile, Hollywood Reporter’s review says that “Jennifer Lawrence is stellar in this faithful, good-enough film version of the massive best-seller.”
However the reviews are overall, there’s no doubt the movie’s going to be a cultural phenomenon, and make a sh*theap of money once it’s finally unleashed on the world.
