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Film 884: The Hunger Games

Trivia: Chloë Grace Moretz, Mary Mouser, Hailee Steinfeld, Abigail Breslin, Lyndsy Fonseca, Jodelle Ferland, Saoirse Ronan, Emma Roberts, Kaya Scodelario, Emily Browning and Shailene Woodley were considered to play Katniss.

Alex Pettyfer, Josh Hutcherson, Lucas Till, Nico Tortorella, Alexander Ludwig, Evan Peters and Hunter Parrish were considered to play Peeta Mellark. Hutcherson was eventually cast, although Ludwig was later cast in the role of Cato.

Jennifer Lawrence was initially cast as the lead in Savages, but dropped out to do this film instead.

On February 22nd, four weeks before The Hunger Games' release, Lionsgate began selling advance tickets. Not only did the ticket sales break the one-day record originally held by The Twilight Saga: Eclipse, but also accounted for 83% of the ticket sales of the day.

The first name of the main character, Katniss Everdeen, is derived from the name of a group of edible plant species, genus "Sagittaria", commonly known as "arrowhead". This is a reference to the character's archery skills. Her surname is a reference to Bathsheba Everdene who is the lead female character in Thomas Hardy's novel "Far from the Madding Crowd". Suzanne Collins, who wrote the novel that The Hunger Games is based on, said "The two are very different, but both struggle with knowing their hearts".

The fictional nation in the film is called Panem. This is derived from "Panem et Circenses," or "Bread and Circuses," which comes from the latter days of the Roman Empire, in which the government would keep the masses satisfied not by performing their public services well, but by providing violent and deadly entertainments for the people to watch, which is rather fitting for the subject matter of the film.

While horsing around on the set, Jennifer Lawrence accidentally kicked Josh Hutcherson in the head, knocking him out and resulting in a concussion.

The first film not released by a big six studio (Fox, Disney, Paramount, WB, Columbia or Universal) to gross over $400 million in the United States.

Lenny Kravitz was cast for the role of Cinna without audition after director Gary Ross was impressed his brief performance in Precious. Because most of Cinna's scenes are with Katniss, Kravitz learned as much as he could about Jennifer Lawrence through his daughter Zoë Kravitz who appeared with Lawrence in X-Men: First Class.

Jennifer Lawrence was paid what was, for her, the high fee of $500,000. It took her three days before she accepted the role because she was unsure how the role would clearly affect her career, since her background was largely on the indie film circuit. For The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, she was paid $10 million, 20 times more than the initial offer.

Second unit director Steven Soderbergh shot much of the District 11 riot scenes.