The good box office of ‘The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes’ could justify more installments of ‘The Hunger Games’

Ballad of songbirds and snakes has reached movie theaters in Spain and the rest of the world. The prequel to The Hunger Games has managed to achieve good figures at the box office internationally, leaving pleasant sensations for Lionsgate, the production company behind the franchise based on the books of Suzanne Collins.

As indicated Variety, the film directed by Francis Lawrence has been able to raise nearly 100 million dollars internationally. Ticket sales in the United States have translated into revenues of 44 million, while outside the borders of the North American country they have reached 54.5 million.

The prequel is set several decades before Katniss Everdeen (interpreted by Jennifer Lawrence). The young man Coriolanus Snow, who would later be the tyrannical leader of panem, is the mentor of Lucy Gray Baird the tribute from District 12, during the tenth edition of the Hunger Games. It cost 100 million dollars to produce, so the numbers from the first weekend seem to indicate that Lionsgate will recover its investment.

However, Ballad of songbirds and snakes is still far from reaching the original franchise, which collectively raised $3 billion Worldwide. Separately, each of the four installments earned at least 100 million in the United States and 200 million in the rest of the countries in the first weekend. In short, the prequel didn’t have such a good premiere. if the antecedents are taken into account.

This does not mean that it was a failure. The entry of the first weekend is satisfactory for the production company, and still key dates ahead in which the box office can increase. One of them is the festival of Thanksgiving, in which many animated films and PG-13 live-action films reach good numbers as a direct consequence of the cinema attendance of numerous families in the United States.

On an international level, Ballad of songbirds and snakes has worked slightly better than within US borders, especially in United Kingdom, Germany, China, France and Mexico. There is still a month left Christmas, but if the film remains in good health at the box office, the total collection will rise considerably.

Will we have more of ‘The Hunger Games’?

Adam Fogelson vice president of Lionsgate, predicted that the prequel will be “a good commercial result for the studio” and believes that it will continue to be a great attraction in the coming weeks. Furthermore, he suggested that it won’t be the last we see of Panem: “The film opened up an infinite series of possibilities with which Suzanne (the writer) can work and we can work with her.”

Judging by the executive’s words, we could be facing a new stage for the franchise, although it seems that Suzanne Collins will be taken into account at all times. Jeff Bock, analyst Exhibitor Relationsassured that Ballad of songbirds and snakes “it won’t be a massive hit for Lionsgate,” but that “any studio that spends $100 million on a prequel expect a trilogy”. Only time and money will determine where the franchise goes next.

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