The Odds of Victory for The Hunger Games (2012) & An Assessment of Its Proclaimed PG-13 Rating

With the Harry Potter film franchise completed and The Twilight Saga concluding in November 2012, movie studios have been scrambling to produce the next big, and most importantly profitable, series of adaptations.  They have had a largely disappointing past half-decade given that adaptations like The Golden Compass (2007), The Da Vinci Code (2006) and The Chronicles of Narnia films have failed to generate universal appeal and/or massive box-office success, though the latter two have been popular and lucrative enough to warrant sequels but lack the increasing dividends of Harry Potteror Twilight let alone the triumph of the essentially perfect Lord of the Rings film trilogy.  Just recall how many carbon copies come out in the years following such hugely successful films, whether they involve ancient/medieval wars or magic.  A few films have managed to rise above others, such as the Bourne series (which will continue next year with The Bourne Legacy), but even that solid franchise is less commercial and its target audience is not so widespread.  Despite a number of mediocre to flat-out-flop adaptations, studios still seek out the next gold mine to pack theaters and sell millions of dollars worth of merchandise that would make the economic recession seem almost nonexistent.  However, for the most part studios have yet to find suitable successors to the tent-pole franchises.

Enter The Hunger Games (2012).  Suzanne Collins’s vastly popular young adult novels The Hunger Games Trilogy have been green-lit into four films, the first of which will appear in theaters March 23, 2012.  The source material has all the elements necessary to become a successful film trilogy, but will all audiences, not just the fan-base of readers largely consisting of teenagers, find the movies entertaining and compelling?  Given the assertion that the film will be PG-13 and the fairly inappropriate comparison to the Twilight Saga, I am not entirely sure the filmmakers have the best approach for adapting the books.  Still, The Hunger Games has a great amount of potential that could reach all audiences and turn out to be not only a victorious adaptation but also a gripping film that stands on its own.

NOTE: I have read the novels.  Moreover, you don’t have to read the books before you read this editorial.  While the fans of the books will understand certain insights better, spoilers will be kept to a minimum for the uninitiated.