The Hunger Games

Lions Gate Entertainment Corporation (or Lions gate) is an American entertainment company. The company was formed in Vancouver, British Columbia, on July 3, 1997, and is headquartered in Santa Monica, California. As of November 2013, it is the most commercially successful independent film and television distribution company in North America and the seventh most profitable movie studio.

Which is 1 of 4 films

Story Line

• In a dystopian future, the totalitarian nation of Panem is divided between 12 districts and the Capitol. Each year two young representatives from each district are selected by lottery to participate in The Hunger Games. Part entertainment, part brutal retribution for a past rebellion, the televised games are broadcast throughout Panem. The 24 participants are forced to eliminate their competitors while the citizens of Panem are required to watch. When 16-year-old Katniss's young sister, Prim, is selected as District 12's female representative, Katniss volunteers to take her place. She and her male counterpart Peeta, are pitted against bigger, stronger representatives, some of whom have trained for this their whole lives.

Production

• In March 2009, Lions Gate entertainment entered to a co-production agreement for The Hunger Games with Nina Jacobs production company production company colour force.

• Because Lions gated hadn't made any profit for 5 years, Hunger Games brought a trill to them as they knew it was going to be a great success.

• Lions gate subsequently acquired tax breaks of $8 million for shooting the film in North Carolina.• The Game makers control centre, about which Katniss can only speculate in the novel, was also developed as a

location, helping to remind the audience of the artificial nature of the arena. Ross commented that, "so much of the film happens in the woods that it's easy to forget this is a futuristic society, manipulating these events for the sake of an audience.

• Lionsgate confirmed in March 2011 that about 30 actresses auditioned or read for the role of Katniss Everdeen. On March 16, 2011, it was announced that Jennifer Lawrence had landed the coveted role.

• Gary Ross became director in November 2010.

• Lawrence dyed her blonde hair dark for the part of Katniss . She also underwent extensive training to get in shape for the role, including archery, rock and tree climbing, combat, running, parkour, and yoga. and had an accident on the last day of her six week training phase, in which she hit a wall while running at full speed, but was not seriously injured. This would have been a problem due to filming, because it would have put back the filming as she got injured, luckily she wasn’t injured too much. Lions gate hired archer (and Olympic bronze medallist) Khatuna Lorig to teach Lawrence how to shoot.

Production

• With an initial budget of $75 million, principal photography began near Brevard in Transylvania County in Western North Carolina in May 2011 and concluded on September 15, 2011, with a final budget reported as between $90 and $100 million, reduced to $78 million after subsidies. Steven Soderbergh served as a second unit director, and filmed much of the District 11 riot scene. This could have been an issue in prodction as the budget went up, but therefor they made subsides and managed to get the amount back down to there original budget.

• Virtually all production photography took place in North Carolina, with Lions gate receiving tax credits of around $8 million from the state government to do so.

• Lions gate originally announced that Danny Elfman and T-Bone Burnett would score The Hunger Games, with Burnett also acting as the film's executive music producer to produce songs for the soundtrack. Due to scheduling conflicts, Elfman was replaced by James Newton Howard. The score album was released on March 26, 2012

Distribution

• The Hunger Games was distributed by Lions gate in 2009 and released in 2012.• Because Lions gate isn't owned by any other company, and it is its own individual independent company this could cause issues with

distribution the film because of it being a smaller company, therefore them owning less money – also with them not making any profit for 5 years before they decided to do the first Hunger Games.

• In 2013 it will be made the most commercially successful independent film and television distribution company in North America and the seventh most profitable movie studio.

• Distribution• The distribution of selected recent non-in-house films for pay-per-view and on-demand are under the

supervision of NBCUniversal Television Distribution under Universal Pictures (Universal formerly held home video and television rights to many of the early Lionsgate films), while all others (particularly the in-house films) are distributed for both cable and broadcast television through Lionsgate's syndicated division.

Marketing

• How ‘Hunger Games’ Built Up Must-See Fever - You printed a poster, ran trailers in theatres and carpet-bombed NBC’s Thursday night line up with ads.

• but in truth Hollywood’s new promotional paradigm involves a digital hard sell in which little is left to chance — as becomes apparent in a rare step-by-step tour through the timetable and techniques used by Lions gate to assure that “The Hunger Games” becomes a box office phenomenon when it opens on Friday.

• Lionsgate used all the usual old-media tricks and giving away 80,000 posters, securing almost 50 magazine cover stories, advertising on 3,000 billboards and bus shelters.

• By carefully lighting online kindling (releasing a fiery logo to movie blogs) and controlling the Internet burn over the course of months (a Facebook contest here, a Twitter scavenger hunt there), Lions gate’s chief marketing officer, Tim Palen, appears to have created a box office inferno.

• Lionsgate has generated this high level of interest with a marketing staff of 21 people working with a relatively tiny budget of about $45 million. Bigger studios routinely spend $100 million marketing major releases, and have worldwide marketing and publicity staffs of over 100 people.

• In August came a one-minute sneak peek, introduced online at MTV.com.

• On Dec. 15, 100 days before the movie’s release, the studio created a new poster and cut it into 100 puzzle pieces. It then gave digital versions of those pieces to 100 Web sites and asked them to post their puzzle piece on Twitter in lockstep.

• Fans had to search Twitter to put together the poster, either by printing out the pieces and cutting them out or using a program like Photoshop. “The Hunger Games” trended worldwide on Twitter within minutes.

http://www.thehungergamesexplorer.com/us/

Marketing - issues

• Surprisingly, for a young adult thriller, the series is a lot more than a fanciful love story or a Michael Bay action movie. It has a substantive critique interwoven through it, which is why Lionsgate Entertainment has so badly missed the mark in its promotion.

• In much the same way as the Capitol used Katniss and Peeta for propaganda purposes by carting them around the districts in the Victory Tour, Lionsgate is selling its movie by carting the actors around Europe for the premieres. While this isn't anything new for the industry, the problem comes from the source material. When a company markets a film that is a direct critique of celebrity worship, it neuters the film it promotes. Perhaps if it were just the European tour alone, this wouldn't seem like such a huge oxymoron. Unfortunately, as another way of reaching out to the fans, The Hunger Games Explorer website is plastered with pictures of Jennifer Lawrence. In fact, with cast pictures, videos, and rewards offered for helping promote the movie, the site itself is bordering on a reality event. This is paralleled in the Hunger Games themselves as the focus on the training and "pre-event" serves to focus the entire nation's attention on the games themselves.

Exhibition

• Release Dates:• March 21, 2012 France• March 22, 2012 Australia,

Germany, Honk Kong, Singapore, Hungary

• March 23, 2012 US, UK, Brazil, Sweden, Norway, Canada, Finland, Mexico

• March 29, 2012 Netherlands, Portugal

• April 13, 2012 Italy• April 20, 2012 Spain

Box Office

Budget: $78,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend: $152,535,747 (USA) (23 March 2012)

Gross: $407,999,255 (USA)(31 August 2012)

Not only was The hunger games a big break though but it was also shown on IMAX, which would encourage more people to go and see it because its meant to be a better experience.

Lions Gate Entertainment

• Lions Gate Entertainment Corporation is a Canadian-American entertainment company. The company was formed in Vancouver, British Columbia, on July 3, 1997, and is headquartered in Santa Monica, California.

• As of November 2013, it is the most commercially successful independent film and television distribution company in North America and the seventh most profitable movie studio.

I MAX

• he IMAX release of The Hunger Games will be digitally re-mastered into the image and sound quality of The IMAX Experience with proprietary IMAX DMR® (Digital Re-mastering) technology. The crystal-clear images coupled with IMAX's customized theatre geometry and powerful digital audio create a unique environment that will make audiences feel as if they are in the movie.