The Hunger Games Prequels Could Happen?

By Dan Woburn / December 9, 2015

Variety are reporting that Lionsgate Vice Chairman Michael Burns has been contemplating the future of the Hunger Games franchise, stating that it will "live on and on". Speaking at a conference yesterday, Burns said that "younger fans missed the arenas" of the first two films, after the last two parts departed that setting. Burns is quoted as saying "If we went backwards there would obviously be arenas", which sounds to me (and everybody else) like a call for prequels. The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 2 is currently in cinemas commanding a box office of $523 million, so it's no surprise that Lionsgate would want to hold onto its cash cow... even if the law of diminishing returns has dictated that the final entries in the franchise are making less and less money with each iteration. Although that box office is not inconsiderable, numbering in the hundreds of millions of dollars no less, I can't ignore the fact that the series' profits took a dive following the franchise high of The Hunger Games: Catching Fire back in 2013. Audience fatigue is perhaps obvious at this point, but Burns may be right in assuming returning to the 'arena' setting of the first two movies will bring audiences back into multiplexes. It was always arguably the best facet of the franchise. The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 2 is in cinemas now.