The Hunger Games: a blockbuster without young men

I think girls, more than boys, want something in the movie that they can stand around and talk about afterward. The overdone fashions of Capitol. Which boy Katniss should date first.

Thare should be a list. What are the topics that teenage and younger girls WANT to talk about with their friends? To create a sense of community. ie, you sit and watch the movie sitting next to your friends, but talking with them about it afterward is part of the entertainment experience.

Grey's Anatomy was great at this the first year. Should Meredith Grey sleep with Dr. McDreamy? Should Yang get a new set of friends who don't hate her so much?

The tree-environment rule seems to work. The middle one is mechanical, the enemy's stronghold, and then the backward tree-hugger Society in the most beautiful spot on earth for the final hour. Maybe the burning question about The Hunger Games should be, if they're going to move the 75th Hunger Games out of rural North Carolina, where should it go? What would be more excitng tow atch? A mountain with deep powder snow for skiing?

Teenagers are feel like outcasts who want and other times do not want to be in. It's a hard uneven time in life when you attempt to learn to control the child in you and the adult that's also growing. The experience of being a teenager exists only in rich cultures and is a fairly recent development in history. Katniss and the other poor kids would already be adults. Being a child in such a culture means working from the time you are old enough to hold a shovel. The world shown in both Winters Bone and Hunger Games is a place without teenagers. The things she experienced in the city would have been things Katniss never could have imagined.

In the hills entertainment is a break from poverty for even a short time through music performed by locals, family events, alcohol and methane. Poor health is just a fact of life.

There are so many movies out there. It's easy to play your favorite movie on a DVD, on a wide screen TV. Much cheaper than going out to a theater.

To be a blockbuster... the movie has to make a connection. They have to think, "THis movie was made for me."

Young women went to see "Hunger Games." Young males didn't see the connection.

Teenagers like to imagine that adults are conspiring to put them down. They think, "If we could meet on equal terms, I'd always beat you."

In the news just now, seven dead at a Korean university in Oakland, Ca. Maybe the explanation is that teenagers like to dream about killing their enemies at school, and a movie is the perfect place to indulge their fantasy.

Which suggests... for "Origin of A Species," maybe there could be some excuse for the teenagers to kill other teenagers? As well as the dogs killing them?

By opening Wrath of the Titans before Easter, Warners says it can take advantage of spring break, which is staggered over the next two weeks in the U.S. Overseas, the Easter holiday also can be lucrative at the box office. Males made up 66 percent of the audience. 55 percent of the audience was over 25. Those under 25 gave the actioner an A-.

(2) Relativity says Mirror Mirror should enjoy strong traffic over the next two weeks as kids break from school. Mirror Mirror succeeded in luring families, who made up 60 percent of the audience. Kids under the age of 12 made up 37 percent of the audience, while their parents made up 23 percent. Girls made up 74 percent of that group, while overall, females made up 76 percent.

Anybody know the male-female audience report for Week 2?

Yes. 98th percentile. Depending on the test, that's either minimum 130 or 132 IQ.

Let's try this:

The villain has to be hated. The audience needs to have an emotional response where they want to see the villain come to an unhappy end.

Everything that the movie shows about Capitol... is aimed at making us hate these people, and yet it's not enough. The audience wasn’t afraid of what the government could do, who they would hurt, and what President Snow would do next.

To make a successful blockbuster, one goal is to create a villain that the audience will get emotional about. Hannibal Lecter? I would give Katniss a more personal reason to hate President Snow... oh, wait, it's right there at the end of Book 2.

If the audience is going to get emotional about the heroine's quest, we need to hate her enemy. A government that starves people to death, makes them watch their children die in senseless ways... What we needed to see was parents who had to claim the body of their child, their reaction to the corpse cut up by a savage beating

Here's some background. I wrote this myself, as part of my Galactic Encyclopedia, which will contain all the knowledge in the known universe.

"A significant influence would have to be the Greek myth of Theseus and the Minotaur," said Collins of her inspiration for the story, reports NewsTimes. "The myth tells how in punishment for past deeds, Athens periodically had to send seven youths and seven maidens to Crete, where they were thrown in the Labyrinth and devoured by the monstrous Minotaur,"

As related by Edith Hamilton in her classic volume Mythology, the story is one of a hero rescuing an oppressed society from brutal strictures. Minos, the king of Crete, once sent his only son on a visit to Athens, and the boy was sent by the Athenian king to fight a dangerous bull. When the boy died on the expedition, the angry Minos captured Athens and declared that he would destroy it unless they acquiesced to his bizarre demand: once every nine years, the Athenians had to send a tribute of seven maidens and seven youths, who would then be forced to confront the Minotaur, who would devour them.

The Minotaur was a hall-bull and half-human creature. Minos had trapped the creature in a specially constructed labyrinth, and he would cruelly put the 14 Athenian tributes into the labyrinth so that they were not only killed by the creature, but forced to attempt escape from an inevitable end, thus prolonging their agony.

Theseus, a Greek hero with a great destiny, arrived in Athens one year shortly before the tributes were due, and he volunteered to serve as a male tribute. The citizens were touched by his bravery, not knowing he also intended to slay the beast. When removed to Crete and paraded before the citizens there, he caught the eye of Minos's daughter, who fell in love with him and offered him a boon towards survival – she gave him a ball of yarn that he could unravel as he explored the labyrinth, so that should he kill the creature, he could find his way out. He succeeded both in killing the creature and escaping, and ultimately was named King of Athens after other adventures.

This story resonates in several ways with The Hunger Games. Though the citizens of Athens were suitably horrified by their plight (whereas Panem is distracted by the spectacle of the television program), Katniss has an awareness of injustice and a stoic strength that recalls Theseus. Likewise, she succeeds not only through her personal strength, but through love, in her case with Peeta, in Theseus's case with Minos's daughter. Lastly, the unnecessary cruelty involved with both games – the arena is, after all, just another type of unbeatable labyrinth – suggests the depths of evil that humans can reach, even when separated by thousands of years. It is key to themes of the trilogy that the brutality of Panem's regime is not unique. Victorious powers have long demanded tributes from their conquests that crippled the conquered people and, sometimes, these tributes were in the form of people. Although historically human tributes were more likely kept alive as slaves rather than fed to angry hybrids, the Greek myth shows that such brutality has long been part of the human imagination.

Anyway... my point is... both Hunger Games and Wrath of the Titans was based on the same Greek source material. But the writers turned out completely different movies.

I'm looking at the Cinna character.

He designs the uniforms for District 12, he creates a dress for Katniss that identifies her as a symbol of revolution and incurs the wrath of President Snow.

Imagine a dress designer having an important tole in Wrath of the Titans?

I'm thinking there are some subtle ideas in Hunger Games that... well, make it so it doesn't suck.

Hunger Games builds on Reality TV, while most teenagers aren't that familiar with Greek gods, and yet, Collins said Hunger Games was based on a Greek myth, the maze of the Minotaur.

Capitol is an oppressive government, but it doesn't seem to be American. Or, rational? Why do they encourage rebellion by making Districts watch their children being murdered?

I mean, it's a very well known symbol of an oppressive government. If you don't obey the rules, we will send troops in to kill your children. Or, use a drone missile to blow up a school. But it has to make sense, and the televised Hunger Games don't. Which goes back to the early success of Grey's Anatomy. The audience was literally screaming at the TV screens, "Meredith wouldn't do that!" When you make a character act out of character, when they do things that violate your moral code, that gets a reaction. Maybe that's a good thing. Because it you get the emotions engaged, they will come back next week for another episode.

Why did Hunger Games beat Wrath of the Titans?

Because Wrath of the Titans SUCKED.

24% vs. 85% on Rotten Tomatoes.

Lisa has raised some wonderful self-esteem issues that should be discussed.

Lisa said, do you get why this pisses me (and other women, i'm sure) off? do you really understand how we feel about you thinking you KNOW how we feel?

Maybe I'll come back to them. From a screenwriting perspective, it's a wonderful way to help the audience identify with the heroine, if she can't stand the idea that men could be smarter than she is, or men could understand how a woman feels. Because once you get on that express train ride of your emotions taking over, you think you're alone. And you're not.

But this is a special weekend. The Hunger Games beat Wrath of the Titans.

As a screenwriter, I feel that I should sit in the theater and write down all the reasons why audiences prefer Hunger Games to the CG of Greek gods.

Hunger Games $61 million on 4,137 screens
Wrath $34 million on 3,545 screens

If we assume that all the fans who loved the books and couldn't wait... they went to the midnight shows, they're out of the way, this is the second weekend

Hunger Games still earns $61 million in second weekend. Which means audiences told their friends, "You should go see this one."

As for Lisa's point, I think that I understand how women feel. If I didn't, I wouldn't be writing scripts. I'd sit back and let women do it. But I feel that I am just as capable of writing a script about these issues as any woman.

"What I said was, the women in the audience feel they know a female protagonist if they see the relationship with the mother. probably works better if there aren't issues."

seriously, i only have one issue -- this one where you say, "the women in the audience feel...." lol! wtf do you know? you say this as if it's some kind of fact and with some kind of authority. do you get why this pisses me (and other women, i'm sure) off? do you really understand how we feel about you thinking you KNOW how we feel? do you feel me or what?!

"you are indeed wrong, i checked mensa is 98th percentile."

this is what we were saying was wrong. you said geena davis had a ridiculous IQ of 200 and suggested you were close to that as well. ha!

"@lisa

when are you going to stop being an asshole of a bitch? post your photo?

oh that's right you hide behind anonymity because you're a dildo.

i stopped responding to anything you write because you're ignorant."

why. so you can piss on it or masturbate to it?

anonymity?!!! you got my name. you got my scripts. you haven't. why are you even here? you don't even give reviews. you just want need people to talk at or what?

please do what you say... and stop responding. i don't care why. just do what you say.

Calvin,

Let's try this again. Sounds like you have a well thought-out conflict for a story.

Obviously, neither one of us will be invited to write the script for Catching Fire.

But if you take the end of "Hunger Games" and work out YOUR concept for a sequel, maybe some of the magic will rub off.

This is tough to talk about without revealing what happens in Collins' book...

but her solution was, when a District tries to rebel, they are bombed out of existence. There were originally 13 Districts, but the Capitol sent bombers and destroyed all the cities in 13.

Your version is just as good as it needs to be. You just added several ways to show a different kind of conflict.

I think the game, the Hunger Game, had an exceptional amount of conflict. The Dark Knight Rises has Bruce Wayne facing two opponents, Catwoman and Bane. The competition is rough this year.

I don't think the fans of the first movie, who got used to the violent game, would be happy with passive resistance. My opinion.

By my typing mistakes I can see it's time for bed.

Andy,

how does my version reduce the conflict? Instead of her love interest being killed, he lives and she has to deal with her relationship with both. Not only that, but passive resistance with no weapons leaves you open to kicking the stuffing kicked out of you with nothing but your will power to fight back. That's a lot harder to do than fighting back with weapons. It also requires more leadership and organization that is greater than that needed to fight with weapons. Take a look at what is happening in Syria now. After a year it has turned into civil war. The passive resistance could not be entirely maintained. So you also have conflict within your own people from those who want to fight back with deadly force. This, of course, weakens the overall resistance and causes conflict with the group. Martin Luther King Jr walked out of a rally on time because some of the the protestors were turning violent. Have many movies have you seen using a plot like this? Hasn't ever been done with a villain like those folks in the capital.

It's a myth that passive resistance in nonviolent because aggression is violence. The difference is you aren't trying to kill your opponent. The Capital city capitulates in the third book of my version because they begin starving and have no workers to keep their machines running.

I just got an email, inviting me to a screening of a new Jason Statham movie

Description: Parker lives by a code of ethics and if you want him on your crew, you must play by his rules. After a big score, Parker finds himself double crossed, near death, and a left with nothing but a desire for revenge.

This is how a screenwriter thinks. His friends double crossed him. He's near death, but his Desire for one thing drives him.

Parker meets an intriguing real estate agent looking for a way out of her dead end life (played by Jennifer Lopez). She has the access he needs and he offers her the excitement she's been missing. While she's hoping for her share, all Parker can think about is his promise to get even. And he always keeps his word.

A situation where the conflict is pushing the hero... that's what we're paid to create. The problem is, this premise is so trite and insulting, it's not going to find an audience.

Good concept, Calvin.

You've tried to reduce the conflict in the situation.

Now, stop playing peacemaker and find ways to increase the conflict.

give the heroine a goal she desires. Throw obstacles in her path. Surviving the games is a compelling goal. Have you come up with a better, or equal one?

I would term yours a first draft... but it needs more conflict to equal or exceed the driving force of the first competition. People dying, people dying... as much as I hate to admit it, I think audiences like to see children dying on screen. I would have thought the opposite, but a LOT of successful movies show on-screen deaths.

Let me try this again. The problem 9is, you misread what I said. Maybe you have issues with your mother.

What I said was, the women in the audience feel they know a female protagonist if they see the relationship with the mother. probably works better if there aren't issues.

It's easier to write a script if the world is limited to three people. But to create the illusion, it's better to show a dozen friends, relatives and acquaintances of variouw degrees.

If the heroine is young, about to start dating, about to marriage, engaged for the frist time, in that age range, it's natural for a parent to still be involved in their life.

What you're talking about... is the plot, the events that challenge the heroine, prevent her from obtaining goal. A good mother should be helping her daugther achieve happiness in life.

Good, bad, bitter enemies, best of frends, women want to see the mother-daughter relationship on-screen. It helps them know the woman character. Especially if she's the age of Jennifer Lawrence.

"Lots of mommy issues... I mean, have you seen any of these movies?"

you can cherry-pick movies to try and make your point, but the truth is the bulk of the best actress characters do not have mommy issues. and a couple that you picked here are weak... The Reader?!!! lol! dood... no!

smart + tough + compassionate = great character, man or woman and mommy has nothing to do with it.