Andrew Yousef in the latest issue of The Hollywood Reporter that, when the studio’s then-president of business affairs, Brad Grey, was asked about the possibility of a sequel for the 2012 film, he replied, “That’s in our hands. There’s a big, long, lengthy conversation in my office.” This would indicate that there may be an eventual sequel on the way. But as the film has come to a close, it is not known if a sequel to this Oscar winner is planned.
The director’s cut of The Hunger Games made $783 million at the worldwide box office and has been nominated for five Oscars — which is quite an accomplishment by a film with a limited budget. But as the Hunger Games franchise has continued to gain popularity, both in theaters and on blu-ray, the film has been hit with critical and commercial mishaps such as leaked trailers, poor reviews, and lack of box office results.
The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1 remains a very popular choice for avid fans of the story, having collected seven Oscar nominations and has been nominated for five more, coming in second each year. It has also become a summer movie favorite thanks to its highly anticipated opening this past week.
The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2 earned $425 million worldwide to go with the Oscar nominations, but is expected to miss the domestic box office top 10. It also has not gotten great reviews — with some calling for a reboot which many believe may never happen — and has yet to enter the DVD and Blu-ray distribution charts, with a home video release rumored to hit the market in late 2013. That said, some film critics still admire this sequel and the concept is still resonating — in part because of how compelling the film feels. I talked to David Cronenberg, who, among other things, directed Mockingjay – Part 2, about where the idea came from to make this film “The worst film ever made?”
Q: How important was the original story of The Hunger Games to the narrative for all of the movies set in the genre?
A: When I did The Empire Strikes Back, a friend of mine and I talked about the idea that we were doing a sequel, and one of the problems about that was that a lot of the actors, most of the people who worked on the first two movies or were in the process of working on the fourth, came back. Some said they