'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

[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*)