The Hunger Games Mania Returns With Posters, Teasers, And World Records
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Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy is currently the highest grossing domestic movie of 2014 (Michael Bay’s Transformers: Age of Extinction has topped $1 billion worldwide, while Guardians has only raked in a meager $580 million plus in total), but if you expect that high water mark to stand for the rest of the year, you may not have looked too closely at the fall release schedule. You may have heard of a little franchise called The Hunger Games, and the first half of the final chapter, The Hunger Games: Mockingjay—Part 1, is set to hit theaters in November. Considering that heroine Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence) was able to topple Marvel’s Iron Man 3 to become the box office queen in 2013, many expect this film, cumbersome title and all, to maintain the throne this year as well. In order to ensure that this happens, Lionsgate is has released two new posters of their beloved protagonist and a teaser for the upcoming trailer. And this comes hot on the heels of the news that Lawrence herself has been enshrined in a notable pantheon: The Guinness Book of World Records.
The third chapter in Suzanne Collins’ trilogy of young adult novels—which will, of course, be split into two movies—Mockingjay finds Katniss at the head of the burgeoning rebellion against the Capital of the dystopian world of Panem. She’s really more of a figurehead, the PR face of the revolution, than an actual leader. This is an understandably stressful position for a young woman, especially when the forces pushing this way and that don’t always have your best interests at heart, when your pseudo boyfriend is being held captive by your sworn enemy, and when you’re in the midst of struggling with PTSD. It’s tough times.
The first poster, shows off Katniss in full warrior mode, with her sleek black armor, quiver of arrows, and literal and metaphorical wings. And the flames. No matter how many times I see it, this marketing approach just makes me think of the Burger King logo.
Poster number two shows off the other side of her strategically planned battle ensemble (there are stylists and people who put a great deal of though into what Katniss and her squadron wear into battle and how they appear in the heat of combat), presumably from the point of view of the fire. While this does show off another side, literally, of Katniss, this one sheet also falls into “hero with their back to the camera” poster layout that’s so ubiquitous these days.
At the tender age of 24-years-old (man, what the hell were most of us doing at 24?), Lawrence has already had the kind of career most actors can only dream about. She’s won Academy Awards, among many others, is the face of a billion-dollar-plus movie franchise, and is almost universally adored and admired for just being pretty awesome all around.
Add this to her list of accomplishments: she will be included in the 2015 version of The Guinness Book of World Records as the highest grossing action heroine of all time. That’s quite a feat for anyone, especially someone so young. We can’t help but imagine her inclusion won’t hurt when it comes to sales numbers of the venerable almanac of all strange accomplishments when it hits bookstore shelves on September 11, 2014.
The Hunger Games earned more than $691 million worldwide, and helped launch Lawrence into the stratosphere, career wise. All the follow up, The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, did was rake in $864 million ($158 on its first weekend) to become the highest grossing female-fronted movie of all time. You can see why we expect Mockingjay—Part 1 to be a juggernaut at the box office.
And if all of this isn’t enough to sate your Hunger Games appetite, you can now start counting down the moments until we see a new trailer, which drops in five days. This ominous video, which only touches on the conflict—though Donald Sutherland is scary as hell, even when you don’t see him—is the first in what will likely be numerous similar teasers that tease the trailer will appear on Monday, September 15.
The Hunger Games: Mockingjay—Part 1 opens everywhere on November 21, while Part 2 drops one year later, on November 20, 2015.
