Production Details

• Directed by Gary Ross

• Produced by Nina Jacobson

• Based on The Hunger Games bySuzanne Collins

• A co-production from Lionsgate and ColorForce

• Distributed by Lionsgate

Box Office Success

• When the film released, it set records for the opening day and opening weekend for a non-sequel

• Opening day - $67.3 million • Opening weekend $152.5

• It is the first film since Avatar to remain in first place at the American box office for four consecutive weekends.

• The movie was a massive box-office success by grossing $685 million worldwide against its budget of $78 million, making it the third highest grossing film in the United State in 2012.

Advanced Success

• The film was a success before it was officially released.

• On February 22, 2012, The Hunger Games broke the record for first-day advance ticket sales on Fandango, topping the previous record of Eclipse (Twilight). The sales were reported to be 83 percent of the site's totals for the day

• The film sold out in over 4,300 showings across the United States.

Tentpole Release

• The Hunger Games is what studios call a “tentpole release”.

• The term refers to a film that the studio expects to “prop up” the studio for that year.

• In other words, they think it’s going to make a lot of money!

• For Lionsgate – “The Hunger Games”

• For Summit Entertainment – “Twilight”

A Ready Made Fan Base!

• A built-in fan base for “The Hunger Games” certainly helps its prospects. More than 24 million copies of “The Hunger Games” trilogy are in print in the United States alone. About 9.6 million copies were in circulation domestically when the movie’s marketing campaign intensified last summer, so Lionsgate’s efforts appear to have sold the book as well as the movie.

Controversy

• Along the way the studio had to navigate some unusually large pitfalls, chief among them the film’s tricky subject matter of children killing children for a futuristic society’s televised amusement.

• The trilogy of novels, written by Suzanne Collins, is critical of violence as entertainment, not an easy line for a movie marketer to walk, even though the movie itself is quite tame in its depiction of killing.

Controversy

• “The beam for this movie is really narrow, and it’s a sheer drop to your death on either side,” said Mr. Palen, during an unusually candid two-hour presentation of his “Hunger Games” strategy at the studio’s offices.

To avoid criticism of a film featuring kids killing kids, the trailer didn't show the games at all and focussed on the build up to them. This created an enigma code (what would the games actually be like?) which encouraged audiences to see the film out of curiosity

Controversy

• The Lionsgate team, including Nina Jacobson, a producer, and Joe Drake, then the studio’s top movie executive, started debating how to handle the movie’s subject.

• The usual move would have been to exploit imagery from the games in TV commercials. How else would men in particular get excited about the movie? But Mr. Palen was worried.

Controversy

• This book is on junior high reading lists, but kids killing kids, even though it’s handled delicately in the film, is a potential perception problem in marketing,” he said.

• One morning, he floated a radical idea: what about never showing the games at all in the campaign? Some team members were incredulous; after all, combat scenes make up more than half the movie. “There was a lot of, ‘You’ve got to be kidding. I don’t see how we can manage that,’ ” Mr. Palen recalled.

Controversy

• Eventually, he prevailed. “Everyone liked the implication that if you want to see the games you have to buy a ticket,” he said. Boundaries were also established involving how to position plot developments; in the movie, 24 children fight to the death until one wins, but “we made a rule that we would never say ‘23 kids get killed,’ ” Mr. Palen said. “We say ‘only one wins.’ ” The team also barred the phrase “Let the games begin.”

• “This is not about glorifying competition; these kids are victims,” Mr. Palen said. A few months later, when a major entertainment magazine planned to use “Let the Games Begin” as the headline on a “Hunger Games” cover, Ms. Fontaine, travelling in London, frantically worked her cellphone until editors agreed to change it.

Marketing Budget

• Lionsgate has generated this high level of interest with a marketing staff of 21 people working with a relatively tiny budget of about $45 million.

• Bigger studios routinely spend $100 million marketing major releases, and have worldwide marketing and publicity staffs of over 100 people.

• The studio has been able to spend so little largely because Mr. Palen has relied on inexpensive digital initiatives to whip up excitement.

• Video

Marketing Strategy

• Early promotion for “The Hunger Games” started in spring 2009, when Mr. Palen flew to New York to meet with publicity executives from Scholastic to learn about the book franchise.

• While some studios have halted once-standard marketing steps like newspaper ads, Lionsgate used all the usual old-media tricks — giving away 80,000 posters, securing almost 50 magazine cover stories, advertising on 3,000 billboards and bus shelters.

Online Marketing Campaign

• However, the campaign’s centrepiece has been a phased, yearlong digital effort built around the content platforms cherished by young audiences:

• Near-constant use of Facebook and Twitter,

• A YouTube channel,

• A Tumblr blog,

• Iphone games

• Live Yahoo streaming from the premiere.

Online Marketing Campaign

• The campaign really sprung into action in May 2011 when the Lionsgateteam started methodically releasing information about the casting of the film via Facebook and Twitter.

Online Marketing Campaign

• Twitter became an integral part of the marketing campaign for “The Hunger Games”

• Fans anticipating the film could actively engage with Lionsgate via social networking.

• It was an easy way for fans to be constantly updated on the progress of the film and thus build momentum for the release of the film.

• In July 2011 the first official poster was released via Facebook.

• Later the same month the first look at photographs of the cast on set were released over twitter.

• Early in August the official release date for the second film “Catching Fire” was released

July 2011 - ComiCon

• They had a stand at Comiccon

• Gave out copies of a new poster to fans

Teaser Trailer

• In August 2011 came a one-minute sneak peek, introduced online at MTV.com. People liked it but complained — loudly — that it wasn’t enough. “We weren’t prepared for that level of we-demand-more pushback,” Mr. Palen said.

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DsVNNHs3RZE&feature=player_embedded

The footage did include a Twitter prompt through which fans could discover a Web site for the movie, TheCapitol.pn.

http://thecapitol.pn/

• The Capitol is where the Hunger Games take place. The site allowed visitors to make digital ID cards as if they lived in Panem, the movie’s futuristic society; more than 800,000 people have created them.

• October included another Twitter stunt, this time meant to allow those ID makers to campaign online to be elected mayor of various districts of Panem.

Main Trailer

• November ‘11 marked the iTunes release of the main trailer, which received eight million views in its first 24 hours.

• Again, Twitter was used to build up hype prior to the release.

Marketing Campaign

• In January 2012, posters were released that featured the main characters of the film.

Online Twitter Puzzle

• On Dec. 15, 100 days before the movie’s release, the studio created a new poster and cut it into 100 puzzle pieces.

• It then gave digital versions of those pieces to 100 Web sites and asked them to post their puzzle piece on Twitter in lockstep.

• Fans had to search Twitter to put together the poster, either by printing out the pieces and cutting them out or using a program like Photoshop.

• A 100-piece online puzzle.

• “The Hunger Games” trended worldwide on Twitter within minutes.

• “It was a silly little stunt, but it worked — bam,” Mr. Palen said.

Tumblr

• A lavish Tumblrblog called Capitol Couture dedicated to the movie’s unique fashions.

Synergy

• “The Hunger Games Adventures” was released on the same day as the film and took the form of a social networking platform

Capitol TV

• Capitol TV arrived in February 2012

• A YouTube channel designed to look like the official network of “Panem”.

• It combined sneak previews of film footage and user-generated “Hunger Games” videos

• “You’ve got to constantly give people something new to get excited about, but we also had another goal in mind,” Ms. DePalma said. “How do we best sustain online interest until the DVD comes out?”

Synergy

• Lionsgate joined Scribd, Donorschoose.Org, and Scholastic, for The Hunger Games national literacy month campaign

• Throughout the month of September, any fan that read The Hunger Games in the Scribd social reader application was entered in “Read a Chapter, Win a Library” for a chance to win a classroom library of books for one of the public schools served by DonorsChoose.org.

From left, Julie Fontaine, Tim Palen and Danielle DePalma, the movie's marketers.

The art lies in allowing fans to feel as if they are discovering a film, but in truth Hollywood’s new promotional paradigm involves a digital hard sell in which little is left to chance — as becomes apparent in a rare step-by-step tour through the timetable and techniques used by Lionsgate to assure that “The Hunger Games” becomes a box office phenomenon

BarbieCollector.com has announced the arrival of the Hunger Games KatnissEverdeen clone, but replicating the character as a Barbie doll feels at odds with the very essence of the character’s power.

But the powers that be at mega-toy-giant Mattel know a good business decision when they see one, and The Hunger Games is no exception.

The Super Bowl

• Lions gate revealed a new trailer for the film at Americans Super Bowl in February 2012.

• The Super Bowl is the annual championship game of the National Football League (NFL) and is a huge event in America’s calendar

Publicity Stunts

• One important online component involved a sweepstakes to bring five fans to the movie’s North Carolina set.

• Notably, Lionsgate invited no reporters: The studio did not want consumers thinking this was another instance of Hollywood trying to force-feed them a movie through professional filters. “People used to be O.K. with studios telling them what to like,” Ms. DePalma said. “Not anymore. Now it’s, ‘You don’t tell us, we tell you.’ ”

Publicity Stunts

• Throughout March 2012 various members of the cast toured “malls” (shopping centres) across America

Meticulous Planning

• They assigned one team member to cultivate “Hunger Games” fan blogs.

• Danielle DePalma, senior vice president for digital marketing, drafted a chronology for the entire online effort, using spreadsheets (coded in 12 colours) that detailed what would be introduced on a day-by-day, and even minute-by-minute, basis over months.

• “Nov. 17: Facebook posts — photos, Yahoo brand page goes live.”)

Exhibition

• The film was released in March 2012 in both conventional cinemas and digital IMAXcinemas.

More resources

• http://www.forbes.com/sites/siliconangle/2012/03/25/how-a-startup-powered-hunger-games-into-a-global-social-phenomenon-a-money-machine/

Synergy

• The single Safe and Sound by Taylor Swift (played on the film’s credits) reached number one on the iTunes charts soon after its release - gaining publicity for the film (as well as revenue).

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RzhAS_GnJIc

ADVERTISING LINKS:https://www.facebook.com/thehungergamesbook

http://www.thehungergames.co.uk/

https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=the+hunger+games&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=TxWbUr68DZOVhQevvYCIBQ&sqi=2&ved=0CI0BELAE&biw=1280&bih=654#q=the+hunger+games+magazine+cover&tbm=isch

http://www.youtube.com/user/TheHungerGamesMovie

https://twitter.com/HungerGames

http://www.tumblr.com/tagged/the-hunger-games-blog

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SKCFCKEowBc (iphone/ipad app)

http://thehungergames.wikia.com/wiki/The_Hunger_Games_Wiki

https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=the+hunger+games&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=TxWbUr68DZOVhQevvYCIBQ&sqi=2&ved=0CI0BELAE&biw=1280&bih=654#q=the+hunger+games+magazine+cover&tbm=isch

As well as this, a new cover for the book was created (with images from the film) and re-stocked in bookshops, causing an increase in book sales as well.

Being an action-adventure film, The Hunger Games had significant global appeal (as action translates more easily into different languages and the narrative works more through action and visual codes than subtleties of script). The film's online campaign therefore was quite easy to translate online (and cheap to promote overseas).

With reference to your selected industry, explore the ways in which your chosen texts are marketed and/or

promoted.

Skyfall The Hunger Games

Meerkating

Skyfall: Sony Pictures$100 million

• Olympics opening ceremony

• Heineken ad (synergy)

• Visit Britain campaign (synergy)

• Coke Zero viral campaign (synergy)

• Adele song (synergy)

• Trailer

• Posters

• Train ads

The Hunger Games: Lionsgate$45 million

• Posters• Trailer• Magazine covers• Website• Wiki• Twitter – including treasure

hunt• Facebook• Youtube• Tumblr• iphone

Regulation/global implications• Film ratings are decided in the UK by the BBFC (British Board of Film

Classification). The studio were eager for the film to receive a 12A rating (rather than a rating of 15) in order to maximise their ticket sales to the key 12-15 demographic. Children of this age-range would also attend the cinemas in groups or with their parents - which would enable higher ticket sales.

• However, the BBFC recommended a number of cuts to be made in order for the film to receive this rating. Seconds had to be cut from the film and blood splatter had to be digitally removed to enable the film to achieve a 12 rating for "intense threat, moderate violence and occasional gory moments".

• This demonstrates the stricter policy of British film censors, as the film in the US received a PG-13 rating for "intense violent thematic material and disturbing images – all involving teens". However, no cuts had to be made.

• Although the film was successful globally, thanks to the genre's overseas appeal and the successful digital/viral campaign, it wasn't accepted in all countries.

• The film was banned in Vietnam, for instance, because of its "extreme violence" and "killing".