'The Hunger Games' Set To Open Near $150 Million Domestic As 2012's Best Film (So Far)

This is a movie with broad appeal because its content is definitely broadly appealing. But as I’ve written about before, I love that it so clearly offers a strong story, character arc, and narrative for female audiences. I love that it has such a great female lead character portrayed by one of the best young female actors working in the business today, Jennifer Lawrence. I love that it’s establishing a modern-day mythology that speaks to females, and that offers social perspectives and commentary not often found in literature or films directed at youths. This film could really be a major turning point for studios and audiences, depending on how it all plays out.

I admit I’ve not read the book series, but after seeing this movie, I’m going to be reading the novels now. And meanwhile, if you’ve not seen the film yet and are waiting to find out if it lives up to the hype, I’m here to tell you that it surpasses the hype and is currently easily the best film so far this year. Extremely entertaining, totally engrossing, highly emotionally compelling, exceptionally crafted, it is the first must-see movie of 2012.

It would be hard for any film to live up to the hype that’s preceded this weekend’s release of The Hunger Games. The frenzy reached fever pitch by opening day Friday, with expectations so high they seemed impossible to meet. Well, scratch that concern. After scoring a sensational $19.7 million right out the gate at midnight showings Thursday/Friday, The Hunger Games never slowed down and looks sure to burn up the box office with a staggering $140 to $150 million debut. And that’s just domestic box office, folks, not counting overseas receipts.

How did The Hunger Games manage such a huge feat? Not only by being an extremely popular young adult novel, not only by have broad appeal to male and female audiences, not only by bringing in viewers of all ages, and not only by having the best marketing blitz I’ve seen in a long time. No, all of that would’ve easily given this movie a strong weekend living up to the earlier expectations, but the reason it has continued to push expectations higher and higher before exceeding them, is simply because of strong positive buzz earned by being the very best film of the year so far, hands-down.
I’ll make a comparison at which some might scoff, but which I think is appropriate. Of the few film franchises we’ve seen based on young adult novels so far, The Hunger Games is sort of the genre’s equivalent to Christopher Nolan’s Batman film series. The Hunger Games is the most serious, most thoughtful, most relevant, and highest quality of any films in the young adult film genre so far (and that says a lot, considering the quality of the Harry Potter films). To be clear, while the film will continue to be lauded as a top quality entry in the “young adult” category, it frankly doesn’t only fit just that particular genre, because it’s as mature, deep, and “dark” as any film crafted for adult audiences while never remotely pandering in typical way toward the tween/teen sensibilities (or rather, what Hollywood tends to perceive as those sensibilities).
If you’ve seen The Hunger Games, dear readers, sound off in the comments below and give us your thoughts!