The Hunger Games franchise is so back as new prequel movie The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping is on track to open to the franchise's best in over 10 years.
Tickets went on sale on October 28, but presales have been going so well that box office trackers Global Box Office and Empire City Box Office estimate the movie is set to open to over $100 million. Empire City added, "$100m looks like a virtual lock for opening weekend. No idea yet how high this can go, but it's not slowing down."
Beyond the figures, the movie has attracted extremely positive first reactions, with early viewers calling it the Rogue One or Andor of the franchise.
Currently, the franchise's biggest opening goes to 2013 sequel The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, which opened to $158 million and went on to gross $865 million worldwide. The Hunger Games (2012), The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 1 (2014), and The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 2 (2015) all opened to over $100 million.
However, when Lionsgate attempted to bring the franchise back in 2023 with the President Snow-focused prequel The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes, the movie opened to $44.6 million, earning $347.6 million in total worldwide over its entire run.
So what makes the upcoming prequel different? Well, Sunrise on the Reaping follows Haymitch Abernathy, previously played by Woody Harrelson in the original saga, who is a much more popular character. Set 24 years before the first film, the movie follows 16-year-old Haymitch, played by Joseph Zada, as he is drafted into the 50th Hunger Games. But as we all know, the Quarter Quells are no ordinary games, so to mark the second quarter, the game makers raise the stakes and send in double the players.
The movie also stars a band of well-known actors amongst the target audience, such as Ghostbusters: Afterlife's McKenna Grace as Maysilee Donner, Stranger Things' Maya Hawke as Wiress, and The Karate Kid: Legend's Ben Wang as Wyatt Callow. The rest of the star-studded cast includes Ralph Fiennes as President Snow, Elle Fanning as Effie Trinket, Jesse Plemons as Plutarch Heavensbee, Kieran Culkin as Caesar Flickerman, Glenn Close as Drusilla Sickle, and Lili Taylor as Mags.
The Hunger Games' leads Jennifer Lawrence and Josh Hutcherson are also set to make a cameo as Katniss Everdeen and Peeta Mellark, too
The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping hits theaters on November 20. In the meantime, check out our guide to all the other most exciting upcoming movies of the year, or the major movie release dates still to come.
