The Hunger Games: Catching Fire On Pace To Make Almost A Billion Dollars
The Hunger Games: Catching Fire won’t be released in theaters for another two months, but it’s already predicted to be on pace to make almost $1 billion worldwide. In more than a year since the release of the first Hunger Games movie, the story of Katniss Everdeen has exploded into the wide world of pop culture.
According to The Playlist, Alan Gould of the investment group Evercore predicts that The Hunger Games: Catching Fire will gross at least $950 million worldwide, with $375 million of that coming from domestic movie receipts and $575 million coming in from international movie markets. Surprisingly, $375 million prediction is less than the $408 million domestic box office grosses of the first Hunger Games in 2012. The Hunger Games grossed $691.2 million worldwide.
Of course, this gigantic number isn’t set in stone, and it’s possible Catching Fire might under-perform. We still don’t know the production budget of Catching Fire, but just looking at its trailers and viral marketing, it could be considerably larger than The Hunger Games‘ $78 million budget.
Lionsgate recently released 20 character images from the upcoming Hunger Games sequel. The Third Quarter Quell’s Tributes make up the majority of the new images, while Capitol figureheads such as Effie Trinket and Caesar Flickerman are also included in the image set. Meanwhile, British Indie band Coldplay released a new single titled “Atlas” from the Catching Fire soundtrack. At the moment, only the Coldplay single is available for purchase. The entire soundtrack will be available sometime in November.
Catching Fire features Katniss Everdeen and Peeta Mellark returning home to their very poor home District 12. As newly crowned champion of the 74th Hunger Games, Katniss is becoming the new symbol of hope for all of Panem. Katniss and Peeta’s homecoming is short-lived when they are ordered to return to the Capitol for the annual Victory Tour. While on tour, Katniss learns more about the emerging rebellion against President Snow (Donald Sutherland). Katniss and Peeta later participate in the Third Quarter Quell, or 75th Hunger Games, which is comprised of winners from the past 25 years. In the meantime, President Snow threatens to kill Katniss as a way to stop any signs of rebellion and to stomp out any hope for the poor and suffering people of Panem.
The Hunger Games: Catching Fire also features actors Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson, Liam Hemsworth, Woody Harrelson, Elizabeth Banks, Lenny “Are You Gonna Go My Way” Kravitz, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Jeffrey Wright, Stanley Tucci, Toby Jones, Jena Malone, Lynn Cohen, Amanda Plummer, Alan Ritchson, Willow Shields, and Sam Claflin as Finnick Odair. The sequel will hit theaters everywhere on November 22, in glorious IMAX.
