These days, it’s become a customary trend with the newest book-to-film adaptations to give some fans a first chance to see what’s new to theaters before a film’s opening day. Starting with midnight screenings and eventually progressing to the night before opening day, these box-office juggernauts owe a good portion of their profits to the fans who beat their fellow moviegoers to the punch and get the word out.
This week, that trend will most likely continue. “The Hunger Games: Catching Fire,” a sequel to the 2012 film adaptation of the Suzanne Collins bestseller “The Hunger Games,” will be formally released to wide audiences on Friday, Nov. 22. It’s expected to be even bigger and better than the first film, launched into box-office glory with the combined star power of Collins’ novel and its leading lady Jennifer Lawrence. Lawrence continues to make a meteoric rise through the Hollywood ranks following 2012, which saw her take on her first go-around as “The Hunger Games” heroine Katniss Everdeen and win her first Academy Award for her magnetic performance as an unstable young widow in the romantic comedy-drama “Silver Linings Playbook.”
Despite its formal release date being Nov. 22, the film will actually hit theaters the day before, Nov. 21, to give fans their first taste of what director Francis Lawrence (“I Am Legend”) has to offer.
The theaters will be swamped, and they certainly expect it. For instance, according to showtimes published on Fandango.com, the Cobb Hollywood 16 & IMAX theater in Tuscaloosa located on Skyland Boulevard currently has 11 screenings of “Catching Fire” scheduled for the night of Nov. 21, including two IMAX screenings. The theater has also scheduled a “Hunger Games” double feature, which begins at 5 p.m.
The amount of screens dedicated to the film indicates the theater management expects a huge turnout, and the Cobb is certainly not alone in believing so. The first film opened to $19.7 million at midnight and pre-screenings when it opened in March 2012, on its way to a $691 million gross worldwide, so there’s no reason to believe that “Catching Fire” won’t surpass – or at least match – those totals.
While several films have also joined the advance-screening trend, the tradition of success seems to be reserved to mostly films in a series, which bodes well for “Catching Fire” and its chances. The highest-grossing midnight release of all time also came from a beloved book series: “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2,” which hit $43.5 million in 2011. In 2012, two superhero franchise films – “The Avengers” and “The Dark Knight Rises” – grossed $18.7 million and $30.6 million, respectively, at midnight, on their way to box office success. “The Avengers” went on to have the biggest opening weekend of all time, with $207.4 million.
I must admit that I have never attended a midnight screening before. However, the atmosphere in general of seeing a movie on its first day of release is something special. For instance, I saw “The Great Gatsby” on its opening day in May. The movie theater was packed, the individual theater was nearly full, and everyone waited with anticipation to see how Baz Luhrmann would bring a classic American novel to life. In contrast, I saw “This is the End” in June, about two weeks after its initial release. The individual theater was nowhere near full, and most people in the entire theater, it seemed, were flocking to the newly released films.
With the advent of midnight screenings and their proven success rates, it’s clear to see that the experience of opening day has now grown into a cultural phenomenon, and one that will surely stay around as long as franchises, like “The Hunger Games,” are still drawing in their devoted fans.
