A2 Media Studies, Production, Distribution, Exhibition, Marketing, Digital, Global implications, regulation

2. Production Details
• Directed by Gary Ross
• Produced by Nina Jacobson
• Based on The Hunger Games by
Suzanne Collins
• A co-production from Lionsgate and Color
Force
• Distributed by Lionsgate

3. 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.

4. 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.

5. 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”

6. 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.

7. 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.

8. 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.

9. 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

10. 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.

11. 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.

12. 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.

13. 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

14. 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.

15. • 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.

16. 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.

17. Online Marketing Campaign
• The campaign really
sprung into action in May
2011 when the Lionsgate
team started
methodically releasing
information about the
casting of the film via
Facebook and Twitter.

18. 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.

20. • 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

21. July 2011 - ComiCon
• They had a stand at
Comiccon
• Gave out copies of a
new poster to fans

22. 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_embedde
d

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

24. 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.

25. • 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.

26. 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.

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

28. 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.

29. • 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.

30. Tumblr
• A lavish Tumblr
blog called
Capitol Couture
dedicated to the
movie’s unique
fashions.

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

32. 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

33. • “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?”

34. 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.

35. 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

37. BarbieCollector.com has
announced the arrival of the
Hunger Games Katniss
Everdeen 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.

38. 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

39. 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.’ ”

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

41. 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.”)

42. Exhibition
• The film was released in March 2012 in both
conventional cinemas and digital IMAX
cinemas.

43. More resources
• http://www.forbes.com/sites/siliconangle/201
2/03/25/how-a-startup-powered-hunger-games-
into-a-global-social-phenomenon-a-money-
machine/

44. 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_Gn
JIc

45. 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=uni
v&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=uni
v&sa=X&ei=TxWbUr68DZOVhQevvYCIBQ&sqi=2&ved=0CI0BELAE&biw=1280&bih=654#
q=the+hunger+games+magazine+cover&tbm=isch

46. 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).

47. With reference to your selected industry, explore the
ways in which your chosen texts are marketed and/or
promoted.
Skyfall The Hunger
Games

48. 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

49. 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".