'The Hunger Games' prequel kicks off weekend with $5.8M from Thursday previews

[masterofmystery]

'The Hunger Games: The Ballad Of Songbirds & Snakes' Begins With Thursday Previews Around $6M - Box Office https://t.co/LkTSRqoMeB
- Deadline Hollywood (@DEADLINE) November 17, 2023
'The Hunger Games: The Ballad Of Songbirds & Snakes' opened this weekend to $5.8M brought in from Thursday night screenings. It's expected to rack in about $45M-$50M at

Comments

[little_vienna]

I saw it tonight and I want to go see it again this weekend as soon as I can.

Even though it's not a great adaptation of the book (left out sooo much, gutted a lot of the message about trust/love/etc, third act was confusingly sparse, and movie!Snow is IMO much more vulnerable and 'maybe could actually be a good person' than book!Snow, who from the outset is narcissistic and selfish and since we have his internal monologue we know that he's often doing bad things or being shitty to people that he's outwardly nice to) something about it just really stuck out to me.

I feel like there was more of the helplessness and anger from the tributes, more of a rawness, because of how the Games aren't yet a spectacle. Plus we spent so much time in the arena, and the nature of this arena vs. the ones of the later Games, means it's so much more "personal."

The parts where [Spoiler (click to open)]they showed the Capitol people tearing up over Lucy Grey realllly stood out because it's showing both how people end up enamored over the games, and how the people in the Capitol do have the capacity for viewing the tributes as human beings but ultimately cross the wrong line.

And the music, wow wow wow. Rachel Zegler's voice is stunning. I thought The Old Therebefore would seem silly but it felt so raw and scary, angry, sad, accepting... idk. I could see why people ended up reacting to it the way they did.

Justice for "Pure As the Driven Snow" and the way they robbed it of its meaning and purpose in the story, though.

Also I have no idea why there isn't a studio recording of In the Old Therebefore. It's the only song on the soundtrack (okay there's two, this plus the first reaping one, but, since it's not the 'proper' version of the song it's fine I guess) that didn't get a nice full studio recording. So strange. At least eliminate Snow talking in the scene if you're going to use the movie audio!

Also I feel like if you read the book, there's so many moments of Tom Blythe's expressions where you can go "I KNOW EXACTLY WHAT YOU ARE THINKING, CORIOLANUS" based on the book narration.

Peter Dinklage was fantastic. I had no idea what I wanted from his character but he brought it. I liked that they added [Spoiler (click to open)]Highbottom warning Lucy about Snow, saying he was glad she survived him.

Jason Schwartzman nailed this role. "What if it's candy?"

[duchello]

Omg I'm so happy to have other people to talk about this movie with finally

[questions and spoilers]
Was Tigress's role small in the book? It felt early on in the movie there would be a heavier presence/significance to positioning her as Snow's cousin but apart from being positioned as moral foil to Snow I wish Hunter had more to do - I left wanting a whole movie about her

I didn't read the book before this but I loved all of Rachel's singing, I didn't realize it was going to be so music heavy but it never felt cheesy.

And I agree the final act of the film I had no idea where we were going, especially not Knowing the plot going in. I thought snow was going to kill Lucy but so glad that wasn't the case. I do feel though that the movie was running so long already so I understand needing to have this arc as it was.

[buries]

[Spoiler (click to open)]From what I remember of the book, the Snows have more stuff going on. I'm pretty sure Snow is there when they move from their lavish apartment to something smaller (whereas in the movie, he's not)*. There's something more with the cannibal you see at the beginning, which the movie doesn't go into very much.

As for Tigress, I feel like she had a big role in the books (she sacrificed a lot for Snow, which we get a good glimpse of at the beginning when she talks about his tessarae shirt).

*Take this with a grain of salt bc I found the book boring and daydreamed a lot while reading it lol.

[little_vienna]

Same here!!

[Spoiler (click to open)]She had a larger role in the book... sort of. Like, in the beginning, it's detailed more how Snow thinks Tigris may be prostituting herself for money as many women and girls in Panem had to do during/after the war. I will say from what I remember, Tigris wasn't really in the third part of the book aside from us knowing Snow writes to her. There is no moment, like in the film, where we get a sense that she's seen the shift in him with the remark about looking like his father & not calling him Coryo. Instead, Tigris seems oblivious to Snow's changing self.

I think they did a good job incorporating the music without making it seem like a musical or too cheesy. Even if I miss the fact that in the book, Lucy's song at the reaping was a literal whole song and a performance, not an angry reaction that was spurned on by the Covey singing to her and ending with her just shouting a lyric.

I wish they'd give us an extra 20 minutes in part 3, because even having read the book, I was kind of like--wait, this is WAY too much, too fast. Part 3 in the book takes place over a longer period of time and feels more organic for sure.

[honeymink]

I thought the film was taking something away that only occured to Tigris later (perhaps around the time he banned her from the Games). The book shows very much that she doesn't want to think ill of her cousin with whom she grew up. I always understood this as commentary that people who we are very close to can still fool us. In that sense adding the Donald Sutherland voice-over at the end of the movie can have different meanings... or so I thought... it's destroying Tigris (here in the movie prematurely and in the history of book canon later) to see her beloved cousin for what he is.

I'm not sure... I think it was in THG that Katniss said she would have sold herself to Cray when they were all going hungry but she was too young. It paints a picture that things for women are always hard, especially during/after war, since they imply the prostitution angle when it comes to both Tigris and Lucy Gray as well.

[buries]

Your thoughts are mine.

[Spoiler (click to open)]I'm so glad we spent some time in the arena because that was my one wish with the book-I felt we didn't spend enough time with the tributes there. I'm sad they cut Clemensia's role because her sadism toward Reaper really unsettled me in the books, and I felt that seeing her do that and then snap out of it would be an effective message about our capacity to be cruel.

I think Tom did a really great job with the material, but I wish we saw more of Snow's narcissism on screen. I don't want to feel sympathy for him, and didn't because I read the book.

They cut too much out of the third act, especially with the Covey. It fell flat.

[honeymink]

I really liked your point about Clemensia!!! That was something I generally missed from the film that the feelings of the other tributes towards the games, e.g. Lysistrata or Festus, were not shown (sometimes there was something another mentor said in the book but then Snow got to say it)... and I thought that was an interesting part -- they all went through the same war and siege but came out with different differentiated views on the Districts and the Games.

Also in Arachne's death scene Snow immediately jumps to her aid while in the book he saw it all unfolding in a rather detached manner from what I remember and Lucy Gray had to tell him to go and help her (which was interesting in itself but it read like along with her advice to own being thrown in the cage, it was another lesson in how to make yourself look good rather than real concern).

[buries]

You hit everything on the head for me.

I think they briefly showed whichever mentor would write down notes about their tribute, but it was one of those blink or you miss it shots. I wish they went more into Marcus and Sejanus because they had such great potential there to explore Sejanus' feelings and Marcus' resentment, but they kept it too surface level.

The fact that book!Snow needed Lucy to tell him what to do to appear more compassionate was what made her more powerful than him (and something I wish Collins had gone more into instead of just paraphrasing everything). I feel like they forgot that Lucy was the heart while Snow was, well, the power to keep her alive in game. She had him by the throat for a reason!

A part of me thinks this would've worked better as a limited series because there was so much that could've been fleshed out (and things the book failed to flesh out, too).

[honeymink]

I think book-wise that's the problem with third person limited narration as it is with first person when you do not have changing POVs... it's how we could only surmise how Sejanus and especially Marcus felt. I mean we get it a bit in the book when Sejanus tells Coriolanus an anecdote about how Marcus helped him when they were young and his hand got caught in door or something. I think Sejanus also understands that most people in D2 hate his family because of the war profiteering. I think that's what he puts Marcus's hostility down to. When I figure that emotions for him are more complicated. I mean everyone is jealous that Sejanus gets this well-fed, tall and muscled tribute but that is dehumanizing, they don't know Marcus at all. He gave Sejanus snow to cool his bruised hand even though they weren't friends (or enemies), and he rather ran from the arena when the opportunity presented itself than to stay and fight. I think there's a brief part in the movie where he tries to convince Lucy Gray to run too and she thinks of it (that was actually not badly done I thought because in the book we only get from Snow's fears that she would run and leave him). So yes, I often think there are a lot of stories in books such as this that are not told. Hence fanfiction.

The fact that book!Snow needed Lucy to tell him what to do to appear more compassionate was what made her more powerful than him

Oh yes, absolutely and I agree with you that that makes her more powerful than him. I think she understands compassion and she can also be truly compassionate while at other times compartmentalizing it... (that's also something that I didn't care for too much in the movie, that she only accidentally killed Dill and felt terrible about it... the whole Treech thing was unbelievable and her not killing him with one of Gaul's little left-over pets took away from the snake theme I found... I think in the book she is very much aware that 24 go in and oly one comes out and thus didn't feel bad about Wovey and Reaper although neither did anything to her).

And about Snow - absolutely. I think in the book we see that in the first chapter, when he can talk a good game with the people at the Academy but otherwise relies very heavily on appearances that are kept up by Tigres's talent with a needle and thread (I think it almost says this verbatim in the book that his cousin has saved him many times by dressing him well and thus making him look good).

Mini-series can be a good thing, but then I wonder they were very en vogue for a time and now seem to go away again. As for this book, I think a few different choices in the movie, maybe having it be 15min longer and making it more of an ensemble piece (than it already was), may have helped.

(Unrelated, I always see your icon around and think... ach, that's awesome! I miss Kate and that was a good season but the longer this hiatus is going on the less excited I am for Bridgerton. Very meh about the new Francesca and worried they will kill Marina after everything anyway.)

[buries]

Marcus and Reaper were two of my favourite tributes aside from Lucy Gray, and I found Lamina was interesting despite us not learning much about her. I wish we spent more time with them because they were so fascinating.

But basically +1 LOL.

TBH I'm only excited for Bridgerton because we get more Kathony. I can do without it being about Colin this season! Hopefully they leave Marina alone, but I know her death instigates Eloise/What's His Face. :/

[honeymink]

I agree - Marcus and his relationship with Sejanus were just a very interesting set-up. In the books I thought Reaper was a mystery, him being so distraught when he said he would kill everybody, I bet he believed it... and like with Thresh in the OG series, I really respected him for not teaming up and while everyone thought he was insane with that make-shift morgue, I thought it showed compassion to not let his fellow tributes lie wherever they fell and putting the Panem flag like a shroud over them felt so right and rebellious in the context of these games. I liked that he was looking after Dill in the movie. I'm obviously reading into this but it felt like he knew that the TB would get her soon and he wouldn't let her get slaughtered for spectacle. Also Lamina - I will say that I really enjoyed her in the movie. There was a really intriguing presence about her in the arena. It took me a while but then it occured to me that the actress, Irene Boehm, is a series regular on "Babylon Berlin". She is really good in that especially as the seasons go on.

(Yes, Kate, Kathony... and that's it. I used to be excited for Francesa('s story) but then they replaced Ruby Stokes. *sobs* Yep, that's how the book goes, isn't it. I really hoped they'd write a new story for Eloise. She can go on one's nerves but I wanted something different for her. I hated that whole book. And when you look at last season, I thought that wrapped up Marina's and Sir Philip's story just nicely. They may not have been a love-match but they rub along fine now. That should be the end of it. No maligning her for being a bad mother due to endless post partum and depression because her husband doesn't acknowledge her. *sigh*)

[little_vienna]

[Spoiler (click to open)]I wish we had more with the tributes and mentors for sure. Like how Jessup saved his mentor during the bombing and she was the ONLY one who told other people about it, it was such a great contrast with Snow not wanting people to know Lucy had saved and worrying that the cameras caught him reaching out for her. And yes with Clemensia! She didn't get to do much.

Same same, I really felt like Tom's Snow--while if you look at his expressions you can get a hint of that narcissism--wasn't written quite like book Snow. I think there were ways they could have gotten this across, like for instance, book!Snow was clearly possessive over Lucy Gray in a way that movie!Snow wasn't. They should have had him be angry with her about the song like he was in the book, instead he's more like... vulnerable and weepy about it, wanting to know if what they have is real, etc.

Third act was way too short. Even an extra 20 minutes might have helped. I feel like we missed Snow realizing that Lucy Gray had an entire life before him. IMO it could be extrapolated a bit through the acting choices (when Lucy Gray takes the drink, idk, for me it felt like 'oh this is such a different Lucy than the arena version!) but I missed things like Billy Taupe talking about how Lucy Gray 'was no lamb' and hinting that she'd done 'bad things' too.

[honeymink]

Also when they were at the lake and Snow asks Lucy Gray about Billy Taupe. If I remember correctly, in the book she tells him that they had met in the meadow and that Billy Taupe wants her to run away with him. And then obviously the scene in the backroom - Mayfair only comes in later, which I feel they totally could have done especially given the earlier scene where she tries to get him to go home with her but he just wants to get to Lucy Gray - ... the backroom scene where Billy Taupe tells Spruce that Lucy Gray is his girl and she is coming north with them. I don't think that would have cost them much re-arranging. Only a couple of more lines in each scene.

[little_vienna]

What I really liked about the backroom scene in the book is that it was ambiguous. When Billy Taupe says "That's my girl, she's coming with me" in the film, it seemed like Billy Taupe trying to protect Lucy Gray to avoid her being shot, combined with his delusion that they might get back together.

In the book, because Snow knew that Lucy Gray and Billy Taupe had met up secretly, it's ambiguous: did Lucy Gray tell Billy Taupe that she would come up north with him? Was she playing Snow for a dupe?? But the movie loses that ambiguity.

[honeymink]

Yeah that was really annoying about the last part -- the lack of ambiguity. And like you said earlier in a comment, when Snow sees Lucy Gray on stage for the first time when she is so confident, talks back to the audience in a fashion that is very familiar and takes a sip of white liquor, we realise there is a whole different person there that we never saw in the Capitol.

did Lucy Gray tell Billy Taupe that she would come up north with him?

Yeah she did. In my opinion. That's neither here nor there but that was always my headcanon. I know that all over the internet people talk about how Maud Ivory is related to Mr Everdeen and thus Katniss and it's a very neat theory. I don't have anything against it if we need a close relation at all. Personally I always thought it was Lucy Gray and Billy Taupe. (Maybe because I was thinking a lot about parallels within the original series and the prequel, and then thought of Peeta's pregnancy ruse in CF -- no proof just random thoughts.) Also she said she didn't think she could survive alone and would go back to D12. I always imagined she did but since music was forbidden anyway at that point, she could live fairly anonymously. /rant (sorry about that)

Througout the book, I thought the point of Lucy Gray and also Billy Taupe in contrast to Coriolanus was that they did what they had to because of survival. Whereas Snow did most things regain his (and his family's) status because he thought he was owed.

[buries]

I said this in another comment but I think this book would've worked better as a limited series because there were so many layers (even the book failed to explore) that the movie didn't give time to breathe. I genuinely hated the mentor set up in the books, but I think it really showed a great contrast between District and Capitol and how propaganda and retelling of history can really warp facts.

I also missed seeing that tribute who killed Arachnes body hanging from a crane. I found that so disturbing in the book and wish that they'd done it in the movie to really go in on how horrifically the Capitol treated the Districts.

Your thoughts are mine because I feel like the movie started to show Lucy Gray was a threat to Snow, but then it seemed like they watered it down a little bit wrt her? Like all of a sudden she's intense about him saying he killed three people and she only knows about two. I wish they had taken more time to show their different ideals (I found that when they spoke politics and the future in the books, you could see Snow fight against the fact she wasn't the idea he wanted her to be) because him turning on her in the end would've been more effective imo.