5 Lessons from the Hit "Hunger Games" and the Flop "John Carter"

John Scalzi is an award-winning science fiction writer.Hey, folks: sick of me talking about John Carter and The Hunger Games? Too bad! I'm going to talk about them again this week!

Why? Because the two of them are in fact perfect bookends of science fiction film success: On the one hand, you've got The Hunger Games, which racked up $150+ million in its opening weekend, becoming the biggest non-sequel film opening ever -- it's on track to earn its studio, Lionsgate, $300 million in profit when all is said and done. On the other hand you've got John Carter, which cost $250 million to make and has performed poorly enough that its studio, Disney, has already declared that it expects it will take a $200 million writedown on the film. That makes it officially one of the biggest flops in movie history.

Is there anything we can learn from the divergent paths of these two films? Here are a few things that occurred to me.

1. A Film That Flops Isn't Necessarily a Bad Film
I know quite a few science fiction writers and professionals, and many of them are flummoxed by how poorly John Carter was received; the general line among the scifi cognoscenti is that it's a fun adventure film that doesn't deserve the abuse it's gotten. And they're correct: John Carter is not the best science fiction film you'll ever see, but it's fun and enjoyable and worth catching on the big screen.

But in Hollywood -- and this has always been the case -- it's not just whether a movie is good. It's everything else around the movie as well: The marketing and gossip and even the reviews. John Carter wasn't a bad film, but neither was it good enough to get in front of everything else about it.

The flip side of this is the terrible movie that everything else makes a hit: See any Transformers film for this. The Hunger Games could have been lackluster as a film and still have done very well; fortunately for it, it's also generally considered a good film, which will extend its box office reach.

2. When Making a Literary Adaptation, It Helps if Audiences Are Familiar with the Source
To go back to my scifi professional friends, a lot of them knew about John Carter as a literary figure because they are generally fairly well steeped in the history of the science fiction genre; they can also tell you about Odd John and Gully Foyle and Lazarus Long, which are three other names from classic science fiction literature that will draw a complete blank in the general population. In a very interesting article on the failure of John Carter, New York magazine's Vulture column notes that John Carter director Andrew Stanton apparently believed John Carter was a household name. In the Stanton household and in the households of science fiction nerds? Yes. Everyone else's? Not so much.

Contrast this with The Hunger Games. The books have sold millions -- and more importantly, have sold millions in the last decade, so that even if folks in the audience hadn't read the books, they knew someone who had, and had loved them. This was the same advantage that the Harry Potter and Twilight series had going into film adaptations. Sales and familiarity alone are not enough to make a hit -- see the film of Cormac McCarthy's The Road as evidence of this -- but in terms of generating excitement for a film adaptation, it's better than not.

3. Know Who Your Audience Is (and Know How Big It Is)
The Hunger Games had an enviable core audience: teenagers, and specifically teenage girls. This is an enviable audience because it is already engaged with the story through the books, is highly motivated to talk about the film prior to the film's release, is liable to bring other people (parents, dates, friends) to the film, and is likely to see the film more than once. The film's PR team, knowing all of this, crafted its marketing message to whip up the potential audience to a fever pitch.

Who was the John Carter audience? It's a Disney film, so was it a family audience? It's a science fiction film, so is it a nerdy audience? It's an action film, so is it a male audience? None of the trailers and marketing of the film suggested that anyone involved with the film had much of an idea who the film was really for (or primarily for). Without that core marketing message, the public perception of it foundered.

4. Let Your Pros Do Their Work
Going back to the Vulture article, it's said that one of the problems John Carter had was that director Andrew Stanton had final say on marketing for the film, which led to a number of clashes with the Disney team. Stanton had final say because his financial track record with Pixar (he directed Finding Nemo and WALL-E, which between them made more than a billion dollars worldwide), but on the other hand John Carter was his first live-action film. In retrospect, he probably would have been better off listening to the people whose full-time job it is to sell movies to audiences. Especially when his film cost $250 million. Which brings up a final point ...

5. Budgets Still Count
John Carter: $250 million to make. The Hunger Games: $75 million. If the two films had swapped their first weekend box offices, they could have both been successful in the long run. Alas, that's not how it went. 

Those are some lessons; there are others. But now I'm out of space for the week.

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What "The Hunger Games" Owes to Milla Jovovich, Kate Beckinsale, and Sigourney Weaver

Thelma Adams is a New York Film Critics Circle member and the author of "Playdate," a novel.With all the buzz surrounding The Hunger Games and the anticipation for its three sequels to come, there's been plenty of shock and awe that a female-driven action movie has this kind of box office clout. And while some (like Melissa Silverstein on the must-read Women and Hollywood blog) have asked whether The Hunger Games will be the first real female franchise, I have a definitive answer: No. It can't be. Because it's not the first.

Though they've been oft-overlooked by the Hollywood establishment -- and critics, too -- at least three women-driven franchises have commanded the box office: Resident Evil's soon-to-be-five installments, anchored by Milla Jovovich, represent the most successful video-game movie series ever; Kate Beckinsale's leads the four Underworld movies; and the grandma of the bunch, Sigourney Weaver, kicked extraterrestrial butt as Ripley in Alien and its sequels.

Violent Video-Game Vixen
When former cover girl Milla Jovovich dazzled at this year's Oscars, owning the red carpet before presenting an award, the general response was that she looked great -- but why was she there? Though it's not common knowledge, the Ukrainian-born actress's action series Resident Evil has grossed $675 million worldwide since the first installment in 2002, directed by Paul W. S. Anderson. In fact, each successive film has grossed more than the last. The fifth, Resident Evil: Retribution, will open in September. Jovovich plays Alice, a character of few words and deadly aim who routinely battles to the death and survives to eradicate villains in another sequel. With Alice, Jovovich has emerged as a major female star who can open movies internationally. She also endures in the pop-culture ethos as the redheaded Earth savior opposite Bruce Willis in Luc Besson's cult classic The Fifth Element. It may be that while critics have never embraced Resident Evil, but there is a devoted, mostly male fan-base that definitely knows how to spell Jovovich.
Surprise Supernatural Series Star
London-born Oxford University dropout Kate Beckinsale is a totally unlikely action heroine, even though she looks great in a shiny black catsuit on a big billboard over Hollywood Boulevard. The porcelain-skinned, fine-boned English actress seems to have been born to play Jane Austen characters. But her Underworld: Awakening 3D, released in January, the fourth in the series, solidified her spot as a genre-action queen in a movie that features vampires and werewolves. She plays Selene, a vampire who began the series by avenging her family's slaughter, and the plot has twisted and turned with each succeeding episode. Beckinsale's daughter with costar Michael Sheen, Lily Mo Sheen, has gotten into the act too, playing Selene as a young girl. The self-deprecating Beckinsale, who seems as surprised as anyone that she's come to be the face of a supernatural action franchise, has been laughing all the way to the bank. She even met her husband, Len Wiseman, while he was directing her and her ex Sheen (Midnight in Paris) in the movies. The first four Underworlds have grossed $450 million worldwide and have been enormously profitable, particularly because they have kept overall costs down, unlike some higher profile movies like The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, which the studio claims to still be in red ink despite a worldwide gross of $231 million.

The First Female Action Franchise
And what about Sigourney Weaver? Her tenacity and lack of vanity as the scientist Ellen Ripley fighting the relentless mother of all extraterrestrial antagonists in the 1979 hit Alien has achieved classic status in action franchises -- male or female. The Alien saga, which included three more films with Weaver, had not only box office success but also critical acclaim (unlike the previous two mentioned). It is arguably the greatest contemporary landmark on the road to the female franchise that has peaked with The Hunger Games. In the first installment, Weaver played an astronaut who became the last woman (or man) standing in a battle of wits, stamina, and muscle against an alien protecting her nest on an abandoned alien vessel. More than 30 years later, warrior Weaver soldiers on, leaping to a major role in Avatar, and riffing off her prominent position as a scifi icon in movies like the geek comedy Paul. Although the franchise peaked domestically with Aliens in 1986, there may still be a fifth movie in the series that has grossed $557 million worldwide -- if the principle participants agree. Interesting factoid: Tom Skerritt was originally cast as the hero, Ripley, but was demoted to the costarring role of Dallas when Weaver came on board, in an apparent effort by the studio to beef up projects with female leads.

So as we celebrate and embrace the monster success of The Hunger Games, let's not forget  genre vets Jovovich, Beckinsale, and Weaver, who broke ground in scifi and supernatural blockbusters and paved the way not only for Jennifer Lawrence's Katniss but, we can only presume (and hope), more female-led franchises to come. They might have been denied universal critical acclaim for boldly leading profitable action franchises, but they have managed to bring bodies into the theaters. You just have to look at one of their movies to realize that they have the body count to prove it.

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The Hunger Games

Bill Gibron is a veteran film critic from Tampa, Florida.

With all the prerelease hype, established phenom comparisons (Twilight, anything Harry Potter), and a storyline that seems more borrowed (Battle Royale) than original, The Hunger Games definitely has its work cut out for it. In order to convince film fans that it's not just the latest lame attempt by Hollywood to latch onto a legitimate literary blockbuster, the results have to stand on their own as a satisfactory cinematic statement.

Luckily, Lionsgate made two wise decisions when crafting this first of a proposed four film treatment of the famed trilogy. First, they hired Gary Ross (Pleasantville, Seabiscuit) to bring his unique vision for the project to the screen. They then cast the amazing Jennifer Lawrence (Winter's Bone) in the lead. The glorified gamble pays off in ways only fans of serious science fiction can begin to fully fathom. While missing a bit of emotional heft, The Hunger Games ends up being an excellent dystopian fable.

It is 75 years after an unexplained uprising and resulting civil war in a nation now known as Panem. The various districts responsible for the rebellion are now punished by the government, centered in the gauche realm known as The Capital. From there, President Snow (Donald Sutherland) oversees the annual Hunger Games, a kind of competition as retribution.

Each area must select two "tributes" (read: competitors) between the ages of 12 and 18 to send to the arena. Their fight to the death will then be televised. In the coal mining region of District 12, the process finds the little sister of Katniss Everdeen (Lawrence) chosen. Katniss, who has been taking care of her sister, volunteers, while local boy Peeta Mellark (Josh Hutcherson) fills the other slot. Transported to the Capital by their handlers Effie Trinket (Elizabeth Banks) and former Hunger Games champion Haymitch Abernathy (Woody Harrelson), they prepare for battle.

But first, they must participate in the pre-contest festivities, including a parade and appearances on the TV chat show hosted by Caesar Flickerman (Stanley Tucci). Once involved in the actual challenge, our duo learns that elements can be manipulated by the Games overseer Seneca Crane (Wes Bentley). As the original 24 participants are systematically whittled down, Katniss and Peeta are played as star-crossed lovers for the sake of the on-air storyline.  

With a strong subtext of social commentary and an even more powerful gender proclamation, The Hunger Games succeeds in spite of itself. Clearly, author Suzanne Collins wants to use her narrative as a critique of the haves vs. the have nots, and Ross plays directly into this dynamic. Katniss and her kind are viewed as poor, oppressed, and lacking any real hope. The residents of The Capital, on the other hand, come across as members of a frilly freak show. Their look can best be described as future shock by way of clown college. The costuming is so over the top and tacky that it almost destroys the entire tone. But thanks to Ross, and the amazing work by Lawrence, everything is taken seriously.

Because of its PG-13 rating, the actual contest is a bit underwhelming. An initial melee is edited in such a fashion as to make the implied massacre almost non-existent, and toward the end, when Katniss must struggle against the well-honed alliances of specifically trained teens, there is a lack of brutality. Also missing is a real investment: We do care what happens to the characters, but can't quite experience the powerful payoff the movie believes it is delivering. Still, for what it could have been vs. what it actually is, for all the flaws in both premise and presentation, The Hunger Games is a home run. It will be remembered long after a certain sparkly vampire and his dour gal pal disappear off the cultural map.

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How YA like "The Hunger Games" Came to Rule Fantasy and Scifi Films

John Scalzi is an award-winning science fiction writer.Hunger Games mania is upon us: The first of a planned four-film series based on Suzanne Collins's science fiction trilogy (because now it's apparently required that the final book of any series must be broken into two movie) hits theaters on Friday. To say the box-office expectations are huge is underselling the statement: Film industry observers expect it to have an opening weekend box office in the neighborhood of $100 million (and that's just domestic) and to be one of the biggest films of the year.

The film does something else as well: It solidifies young adult science fiction and fantasy as one of the most successful genres of literature for adaptation into blockbuster films. The Hunger Games will be following on the massive success of the Twilight series (four films, $1 billion in domestic box office) and Harry Potter series (eight films, $2.3 billion), and will be followed by others, including Cassandra Clare's The Mortal Instruments, with Lily Collins (Mirror Mirror) set to star, as well as Scott Westerfeld's Uglies series, optioned and on deck.

What is it about young adult science fiction and fantasy that makes it so delicious to Hollywood -- and to moviegoers? Well ...

1. Stories, Cinematically Built
Young adult genre reading audiences like a good story -- a tale that has a beginning, middle, and end, and doesn't necessarily get lost in the thickets of language or craft. This may sound like a backhanded compliment, but it's actually the opposite, and also why so many adults enjoy young adult fiction: because it gives readers a complete storytelling journey. There may also be good language and writing craft, but the emphasis is on the storytelling, which is not always the case with adult fiction.

This emphasis on storytelling works very well for commercial films, which have the same emphasis, and makes it easier for filmmakers to adapt and streamline the books into two-hour movies.

2. Built-in, Fanatical Audiences
Successful young adult series have the sort of fans that get movie makers salivating: They're young and they're so committed to the series that they will bring it into their lives, writing fan fiction and dressing up as their favorite characters and endlessly discussing the world the author has created. It's the sort of commitment that marketing can't buy and that films can't create before release. It also gives the films a marketing and publicity hook, because newspapers, blogs, and TV shows can cover the fan love of the series well in advance of the films. As they did for Potter, Twilight and now Hunger Games.

This sort of thing can be rushed, to bad effect -- note the flop of I Am Number Four, the film of which was released well before the book series gained any sort of real traction with YA readers -- but when it's on, it's gold.

3. Young (Yet Identifiable) Heroes
Harry Potter, Bella Swan, Katniss Everdeen: all characters that work for every age group. Younger audience members see a character they can identify with and wish they could be, or have adventures with -- it's not a coincidence my 13-year-old daughter has taken up archery -- while older audiences empathize someone going through a series of trials and tribulations so young.
This isn't to say that being a wizard, or being in love with a vampire, or staying alive in a bloody reality show is in the normal range of experiences for most people (I mean, hopefully). It's more to the point that we recognize these things as heightened versions of (respectively) discovering ourselves, being in love, and suffering through crises.

For Hollywood, there is also the practical aspect that young stars are cheap, at least at first, which helps keep film production costs manageable, at least at first.

4. Ancillary Merchandising
Pop into a Hot Topic store this week and you'll find it's been taken over with Hunger Games stuff -- everything from the inevitable T-shirts to an $80 crossbow. In all there are more than 60 different Hunger Games-related items you can get from the store, according to a Los Angeles Times article on the subject. There's even a Hunger Games Barbie on the way.

All of which may seem ridiculous, but then, let's go back to point two, and the built-in, fanatical audiences. They're already there, movies are expensive, and licensing merchandise to successful films is a grand tradition in Hollywood, as well as in science fiction and fantasy. Just ask George Lucas, if you can find him under his massive piles of merchandising cash.

YA-based science fiction and fantasy films are not always a license to print money -- for every Harry Potter, there's an underperforming Percy Jackson; for every Twilight, there's a lackluster Vampire's Assistant. But if you're a filmmaker and you're swinging for the fences, then the YA section of your local bookstore is definitely going to be one of your first stops.

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What Your Daughter (and You) Can Learn from "The Hunger Games"

Thelma Adams is a New York Film Critics Circle member and the author of "Playdate," a novel.When my 12-year-old daughter introduced me to The Hunger Games last year, I was immediately hooked. Suzanne Collins's dystopian trilogy has been a huge bestseller for tweens, teens, and their parents; critics and fans alike are already predicting that the movies will be the next Twilight or Harry Potter. And unlike those two series, at its core is an unapologetically powerful female hero.
Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence of Winter's Bone), like some futuristic Artemis the Huntress, is a moral and ethical teaching tool on swift, muscular legs. The consequences of the tough decisions she is constantly weighing are often dire. Katniss is drafted by her oppressive government to "entertain" her fellow citizens in a kill-or-be-killed Survivor-style spectacle ... starring children. For 16-year-old Katniss, life isn't a Disney teen chewy of peer pressure and meet-cute crushes. Since her widowed mother (Paula Malcomson) and her sister, Prim (Willow Shields), depend on her for their survival, she can't afford a shred of narcissism. The movie does have some disturbing violence, it's true, but it also yields a number of strong lessons for kids -- and their parents. Such as ...

Sisterhood Sometimes Requires Strength and Sacrifice
Many of Katniss's finest actions are set into motion to protect her younger sister from pain and hardship. As anyone who has seen the trailer knows -- much less avid readers -- the Capitol selects fragile youngster Prim to join the other 23 youthful "Tributes" selected for the big televised battle. Katniss immediately volunteers, trading her life for that of her sister. The cost? Potentially death. At best, she's going to have to kill a lot of strangers to survive.

Loyalty Can Be Hard
Being true in word and deed seems clear-cut enough in theory: Don't sell out your mother, your brother, your best friend, your ... fill in the blank. The challenge is prioritizing loyalties in difficult times (see Sophie's Choice). Katniss has conflicting loyalties -- at home, because her mother had an emotional collapse after her father died in a coal mine, Katniss has become the primary caregiver in the family. At times, in order to safeguard Prim, and because she is angry at the way this shortchanges her own youth, Katniss makes choices between her mother and her sister that sacrifice her mother. Similarly, she wants to be loyal to her best friend, Gale (Liam Hemsworth, The Last Song), but in the arena she is thrown in with Peeta (Josh Hutcherson, The Kids Are All Right), and only by playing a game of "star-crossed lovers" does the pair have any chance of returning home alive. To Gale, it seems like a breach of loyalty, and even Katniss suffers from the apparent betrayal -- but she makes a choice and acts on it.

Take Responsibility
Katniss consistently takes responsibility for her actions. She never blames Prim for her decision to become a Tribute. She poaches outside their district's electrified fence to feed her family, knowing that she alone will be punished for breaking the law. When she takes a younger tribute, Rue (Amandla Stenberg, Colombiana), under her wing during the games and her plan endangers the weaker competitor, Katniss feels remorse that she put Rue in harm's way. One of Katniss's challenges, having provided for her nuclear family for so long, is learning when to share responsibility. When do we own our situation, and when do we need to work as a team? In life, we are constantly shifting between personal responsibility and teamwork -- that is, those of us who aren't shirking or procrastinating or hoping someone else will do the right thing.

One clear lesson that emerges from The Hunger Games -- a lesson learned by our grandparents and great-grandparents during the Depression and by the survivors of last year's Japanese tsunami -- is that hard times build character. Difficult choices (stepping up to save your sister; pretending to love one boy because that will save your lives, even though it will hurt your true love; protecting and comforting a younger Tribute who can only survive if you don't) define Katniss as a character and, to some extent, all of us as human beings.

What I want to discuss with my daughter after taking her to see The Hunger Games is the central message that our actions define us. The reason that Katniss emerges as a role model is not because she has superpowers but because she struggles to do the right thing, for herself and for those she loves. Even when Katniss fails, she stumbles her way to the right actions. And that's a critical lesson in real-world survival that a mother can share with her daughter -- and still appreciate as an adult.

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