How big will The Hunger Games be?

It's March 22, and in a few hours midnight screenings for one of the biggest films of 2012 will begin. The Hunger Games, an adaptation of the first novel of the Suzanne Collins teen trilogy, will almost certainly be one of the highest grossing films of the year. The story, about a young girl in a future dystopian society forced to fight to the death against eleven other children in an arena controlled by a nefarious central government, is one of the most popular cultural phenomena going today.

The question is: how big will this film be?

Get used to these faces. They will be everywhere for the near future.

We've already seen one enormous opening this year with The Lorax, which hauled in $70 million opening weekend. That movie had a boost since it was directed at kids. Most of the time parents join their children at those sorts of movies, which provides a boost to revenue. 

The Hunger Games gets a boost of a different sort: the young female audience. This is the same demographic that grossed Titanic $600 million dollars. There were many repeat viewings by young females for that film, which propelled it to unforeseen heights of financial success. If The Hunger Games is good (which I hear it is) and it can hook its demographic to repeat viewings, then it could be a similar phenomenon, in which case, financially, the sky is the limit.

But, The Hunger Games doesn't just appeal to the female audience. The story also appeals to the young male audience. There are two main male characters in the film, and both are strong personalities whose stories are interesting in their own right. The film also is fairly violent. We are, after all, talking about a movie in which 12 people fight to the death in a last-man-standing free-for-all. The violence might not be explicit, but it will certainly be present. Finally, the games are set in a highly advanced future society, so there should be some interesting scenery and technology to show off. The film should be a mix of rough-and-tumble backwoods fighting and future society wizardry, all of which should combine to keep young males interested in the film.

The Hunger Games opens in 4,137 theaters, including 268 IMAX theaters (the format to watch any movie, btw). It's in the top 15 of widest openings in cinema history, not too far behind #1, which belongs to The Twilight Saga: Eclipse (4,468 screens). Midnight screenings are selling out all over the country, and, with some theaters hosting three, four, or more screenings tonight, we are likely to see one of the highest midnight grosses in history. 

Bring it on Box Office!

For the weekend, a $100 million opening is not out of the question. My guess is that we'll see closer to a $110-125 opening. I also predict this to be among the top three highest-grossing films of 2012. The Dark Knight Rises, The Avengers, and The Hobbit will all certainly pull in some cash later this year, but I wouldn't be surprised if The Hunger Games is pretty far up the charts. I don't think it will top TDKR, but it could wind up anywhere in the 2-4 slot.

It's going to be a big weekend at the movie theater!

Are you going to see The Hunger Games this weekend? Let me know in the comments below, and follow me on Twitter!