Lionsgate Chairman Joe Drake On The Hunger Games Renaissance

Lionsgate’s motion picture group chairman Joe Drake spoke with The Wrap about their plan to get audiences interested in The Hunger Games franchise again after it’s been dormant for so long.

Drake says he’s seen a cut of the film from Francis Lawrence and it’s “truly extraordinary“ 🤩

He also discussed the “Hunger Games Renaissance” (way to go, tributes!) 🏹🔥

“What’s actually happened is that there’s a viral movement called “Hunger Games Renaissance” that has come up in the past couple of weeks and while it started with people who grew up reading and watching the Hunger Games, we’re also seeing it being embraced by a whole new audience who are discovering the films and books.”

He shared that releasing the original films on Netflix put the books back on the bestseller list and amped up sales for Ballad.

“What we are doing separate from Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes to bring The Hunger Games back, is to line up all of the original movies on Netflix.When we did that, we found that the original books rose back to the top of the bestseller list and sales for the new book, Songbirds and Snakes, rose by 40% to 50%. When The Hunger Games films first came out, the strategy that Lionsgate followed was “sell the books first,” and that’s pretty much what we’re doing here to reignite the appetite for this franchise.