It’s no surprise Hunger Games had an enormous opening weekend at the box office, although still not the biggest of all time.
Nevertheless, it’s absolutely in the top three along with The Dark Knight at #2, and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 at #1.
Even with so many having read the series already, it was a given the success of the film would also help ramp up book sales. Of course, I’m sure this is one of the major reasons Hunger Games got the green light, as it has a huge built in audience of readers.
This is absolutely what big studios always dream of, a huge franchise that can churn out movies for years, and push a lot of merchandise as well.
Now The Hollywood Reporter tells us the book sales from the success of the film are “bigger than expected,” and there’s now 36.5 million copies of the series in print, a big jump from 23.5 million.
Per installment, this means there’s 17.5 million copies of The Hunger Games in print, 10 million copies of Catching Fire, and 9 million copies of Mockingjay. Since everyone inevitably compares Hunger Games to the Twilight series, this puts Games well past the teen vampire saga, which has 30 million copies of the series in print.
Other successes clinched by Games? The series has been on the prestigious New York Times bestseller list for three years now, and according to Amazon, Games creator Suzanne Collins is now Kindle e-reader’s all time best selling author.
Needless to say, Scholastic books, publisher of The Hunger Games is very pleased by these developments, and in a statement, Scholastic President Ellie Berger said,”Suzanne Collins has created a vivid and compelling future world that has captivated both teen and adult readers and is sure to become a classic. We are proud to be her publisher and we join readers everywhere in celebrating her amazing talent.”
