'Hunger Games' and 'Twilight' duel for opening grosses
There is a fake war brewing between fans of Stephanie Meyer鈥檚 聽and fans of Suzanne Collins鈥� Hunger Games trilogy, and the fate of entire worlds, universes, random chat threads across the Internet hang in the balance. The fake war in question will be waged by Oscar-nominated director Gary Ross鈥� big screen adaptation of ,聽and Oscar-winning director Bill Condon鈥檚 two-part finale to the Twilight Saga, .
We now have early聽reconnoissance聽reports stating that Hunger Games has gained some tactical financial ground, as early projections are that the film will break鈥r, Breaking Dawn 鈥� Part 1鈥荣聽opening weekend numbers.
THR reports the so-called 鈥渟hocker鈥� that Hunger Games is currently tracking to have a bigger late March opening than Breaking Dawn 鈥� Part 1鈥荣 $138.1 million debut back in November 2011. The Hunger Games started racking up opening weekend projections a few weeks back, when we reported that the film had ; since that time, the profit predictions have only gone upward 鈥� a rarity in the film business.
If predictions hold true, Hunger Games would blow the out of the water, and could come close to, or even best,聽鈥荣 $142 million debut. Of course, New Moon, Eclipse, and Breaking Dawn 鈥� Part 1聽were all sequel films, while The Hunger Games is an untested film property 鈥� making these lofty predictions even more surprising. We here at Screen Rant were even skeptical about whether the had done enough to attract the wider audience who weren鈥檛 already fans of the books. Apparently that skepticism was misplaced.
Of course, this fake war between Twilight and Hunger Games聽is just what the term would imply: it鈥檚 fake. Lionsgate owns the rights to The Hunger Games聽movie(s) and Summit Entertainment owns the rights to the Twilight movies 鈥� and earlier this year, , ostensibly brining both HG and TS under one roof. All the money on these big franchises now flows the same way.
More to the point: these movies based on popular Young Adult novels tend to appeal to the same crowds 鈥� those who like stories about teens thrown into fantastical situations / love triangles with sensitive, brooding men. Both have strong(ish) female protagonists, familiar genre tropes, etc鈥�
鈥ottom line: their similarities are stronger than their differences, and both will be cash-cows for Summit/Lionsgate.
Kofi Outlaw blogs at .
