Exclusive Teaser Trailer
Teaser · The Hunger Games · 14 April 2013
The film
Film 2 of 6 · Original quadrilogy Australia first
The Hunger Games: Catching Fire
“Every revolution begins with a spark.”
- Australian release
- 21 November 2013
- US release
- 22 November 2013
- Classification (AU)
- M
- Runtime
- 146 min
- Director
- Francis Lawrence
- AU distributor
- Roadshow Films
§ 01
Katniss Everdeen and Peeta Mellark come home from the 74th Hunger Games as victors, only to discover that surviving the arena was the easy part. Their Victory Tour is meant to sell the Capitol's star-crossed-lovers narrative; instead it lights fuses across the districts, and President Snow makes clear that Katniss's continued existence has become a political problem he intends to solve. When the 75th Games are announced as a Quarter Quell drawing its tributes from the existing pool of victors, the state finds an elegant way to put her back in the arena. Francis Lawrence's first outing in the franchise trades the original's handheld urgency for scale and dread.
§ 02
Catching Fire news The Australian angle
On the ground here
- Australia got it first again: Roadshow opened Catching Fire nationally on Thursday 21 November 2013, a day ahead of North America.
- Opening day took A$2.72 million — a 65% lift on the first film's A$1.75 million, and the second-biggest opening day in Australia that year behind Iron Man 3.
- Opening weekend grossed A$12.475 million from 579 screens, up 34% on the first film, preceded by sold-out midnight sessions nationwide.
- It held number one in Australia for four consecutive weeks and finished 2013 as the country's second highest-grossing release with A$36.37 million.
- Adelaide's Sia performed 'Elastic Heart' with The Weeknd and Diplo for the official soundtrack. Her 2014 solo re-recording later reached number 5 in Australia and went 3× Platinum.
- Canberra-born Stef Dawson makes a brief appearance as Annie Cresta, before taking the role substantively across both Mockingjay films.
§ 03
Who's in it
Cast
20 principal roles · 1 Australian, marked
Katniss Everdeen
Jennifer Lawrence
Won the Best Actress Oscar for Silver Linings Playbook between the two films
Peeta Mellark
Josh Hutcherson
Gale Hawthorne
Liam Hemsworth
Australian — born in Melbourne
Haymitch Abernathy
Woody Harrelson
Effie Trinket
Elizabeth Banks
Cinna
Lenny Kravitz
Plutarch Heavensbee
Philip Seymour Hoffman
Franchise debut
Beetee Latier
Jeffrey Wright
Franchise debut
Finnick Odair
Sam Claflin
Franchise debut
Johanna Mason
Jena Malone
Franchise debut
Caesar Flickerman
Stanley Tucci
President Coriolanus Snow
Donald Sutherland
Claudius Templesmith
Toby Jones
Primrose Everdeen
Willow Shields
Mags Flanagan
Lynn Cohen
Wiress
Amanda Plummer
Enobaria
Meta Golding
Brutus
Bruno Gunn
Gloss
Alan Ritchson
Cashmere
Stephanie Leigh Schlund
§ 04
Behind it
Crew and credits
- Directed by
- Francis Lawrence
- Screenplay
- Simon Beaufoy, Michael Arndt (as Michael deBruyn)
- Based on
- Catching Fire (2009) by Suzanne Collins
- Music
- James Newton Howard
- Cinematography
- Jo Willems
- Editing
- Alan Edward Bell
- Production design
- Philip Messina
- Costume design
- Trish Summerville
- Produced by
- Nina Jacobson, Jon Kilik
- Studio
- Lionsgate
- Australian distributor
- Roadshow Films
- Budget
- US$130 million
§ 05
How it performed
The numbers
- Australian box office
- A$36.37 million 2nd highest-grossing film in Australia in 2013
- Worldwide
- US$865.0 million
- North America
- US$424.7 million
- Rotten Tomatoes
- 90%
- Metacritic
- 76/100
§ 06
The gallery
Official stills
20 images · Lionsgate / Roadshow Films
Lionsgate / Roadshow Films
§ 07
Watch
Official videos
12 uploads, each verified against its official channel
§ 08
How it was made
Production notes
- Gary Ross confirmed in April 2012 that he would not return, citing the compressed production schedule rather than any dispute with Lionsgate.
- Lionsgate settled on Francis Lawrence over finalist Bennett Miller within days — the tight turnaround driven partly by Jennifer Lawrence's contractual obligation to start X-Men: Days of Future Past in late January.
- Roughly 50 minutes was photographed with three IMAX 15-perf/65mm film cameras — the entire Quarter Quell arena section. The frame expands the moment Katniss enters the arena and stays there through the final shot, the longest continuous IMAX-shot sequence in a Hollywood feature at the time.
- Principal photography began on 10 September 2012 around Atlanta, then moved to Hawaii for the arena, with additional photography into early 2013.
- Simon Beaufoy wrote the adaptation, with revisions by Michael Arndt credited under his pseudonym 'Michael deBruyn'.
- The campaign leaned on in-world material: the CapitolCouture.PN site, Capitol character portraits, an MTV Movie Awards teaser, and a final trailer aired during Game 4 of the 2013 World Series.
- Trish Summerville's Capitol wardrobe won the Saturn Award for Best Costume.
§ 09
The record
Key dates
-
Gary Ross confirms he will not direct the sequel.
-
Lionsgate settles on Francis Lawrence as director.
-
Principal photography begins near Atlanta, Georgia.
-
Teaser trailer premieres at the MTV Movie Awards.
-
Sia's 'Elastic Heart' released from the soundtrack.
-
Final trailer debuts during Game 4 of the World Series.
-
World premiere, Odeon Leicester Square, London.
-
Australian release through Roadshow Films, following midnight sessions nationwide.
-
North American release; sets a then-record November opening weekend.
Sources
- Box Office Mojo
- Australian Classification Board
- IF Magazine — Hunger Games catches fire at Oz B.O.
- Screen Daily — Australian box office 2013
- Wikipedia
Stills and key art © Lionsgate / Roadshow Films, reproduced editorially with credit. Image data sourced via TMDB; THGAustralia uses the TMDB API but is not endorsed or certified by TMDB. Spotted an error? Tell us.
