More than twelve years after it was originally released in theaters, The Hunger Games is beginning to climb the streaming charts once again.
Francis Lawrence’s acclaimed action blockbuster has broken into HBO’s Top 10 U.S. movies chart, just three weeks before Sunrise on the Reaping is scheduled for release in the United States.
The dystopian action classic stars Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson, and Woody Allen in a bold, violent adaptation of Suzanne Collins‘ young adult books, which follow a group of teenagers in a futuristic society who are condemned to fight to the death in order to preserve the sanctity of their tyrannical regime.
Although Lawrence had already received critical acclaim for projects such as Winter’s Bone, it wasn’t until The Hunger Games that she finally broke through as an international star, and her career exploded overnight. The film was the undisputed cinematic event of the year, and it spawned a whole boom in popularity for young adult dystopias—as seen by the subsequent success of projects like The Maze Runner and Divergent.
It’s hard to overstate just how much of a commercial juggernaut the Hunger Games franchise evolved to be, although the foundations of that financial success were there from the very beginning. The first movie made $695 million worldwide against a reported budget of just $78 million, and each subsequent sequel came close to matching that record. Catching Fire remains the most successful of the franchise, making $865 million worldwide.
Beyond the commercial success, the first two entries in the Hunger Games franchise were also widely respected by critics. They have Rotten Tomatoes scores of 84% and 90%, respectively, with Catching Fire‘s critical consensus reading: “Smart, smoothly directed, and enriched with a deeper exploration of the franchise’s thought-provoking themes, Catching Fire proves a thoroughly compelling second installment in the Hunger Games series.” Unfortunately, later sequels generally trended less favorably, with critics and fans agreeing that Mockingjay wasn’t as strong as the first two films.
The reason for The Hunger Games‘ recent streaming success is no secret: with only three weeks left until Sunrise on the Reaping takes audiences back to the dystopian world of Panem, audiences are clearly exciting to immerse themselves in this blockbuster franchise once again.
