This is a big one. When it was first announced that Collins had sold the film rights to her books, most people assumed that there would be one film per novel. Though the Harry Potter franchise had added a film by splitting the final book, there was no indication that the Hunger Games movies would follow suit. However, after the success of the first film, Lionsgate announced that Mockingjay would be released in two parts, leading to concern that they would have to substantially pad out the plot. Instead, it has simply allowed the Mockingjay story to breathe a little more than the first two and has lead to a much more intricate end to the story than would otherwise have been allowed.