How ‘Hunger Games’ Built Up Should-See Fever

Alongside the way the studio had to navigate some unusually large pitfalls, chief among them the film’s tricky subject material of kids killing youngsters for a futuristic society’s televised amusement. The trilogy of novels, written by Suzanne Collins, is vital of violence as entertainment, not a straightforward line for a movie marketer to stroll, despite the fact that the film itself is kind of tame in its depiction of killing.

“The beam for this movie is absolutely narrow, and it’s a sheer drop to your loss of life on either aspect,” stated Mr. Palen, throughout an unusually candid two-hour presentation of his “Hunger Games” technique on the studio’s workplaces here last month. A built-in fan base for “The Starvation Games” definitely helps its prospects. More than 24 million copies of “The Hunger Games” trilogy are in print in the United States alone.

About 9.6 million copies were in circulation domestically when the movie’s marketing marketing campaign intensified final summer time, so Lionsgate’s efforts seem to have bought the e-book as effectively because the movie. 100 million advertising main releases, and have worldwide advertising and publicity staffs of over a hundred people. The studio has been able to spend so little largely as a result of Mr. Palen has relied on cheap digital initiatives to whip up pleasure. The irony is that every one of this should still not be enough to save lots of Mr. Palen’s job. In a corporate twist on “The Hunger Video games,” Mr. Palen is being forced to battle for his skilled life following Lionsgate’s acquisition in January of Summit Entertainment, which controls the “Twilight” franchise.

Which means Lionsgate now has two advertising and marketing chiefs, and there is only room for one. Palen declined to touch upon his job status, nevertheless it is obvious that Ms. Collins is perplexed at the possibility of a future without him. “He’s a generous collaborator,” she stated in an e-mail. “His work is so exceptionally good, I hardly ever had any notes.

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If he keeps his e-mails, he should have about 50 from me that say, ‘That looks superb! Early promotion for “The Starvation Games” began in spring 2009, when Mr. Palen flew to New York to fulfill with publicity executives from Scholastic to be taught in regards to the guide franchise. Rubber didn’t hit the road, nonetheless, till final March, when the Lionsgate crew, together with Julie Fontaine, government vice president of publicity, began methodically pumping out casting information by way of Fb.

They assigned one crew member to cultivate “Hunger Games” fan blogs. Danielle DePalma, senior vice president for digital advertising, drafted a chronology for your complete on-line effort, utilizing spreadsheets (coded in 12 colors) that detailed what can be launched on a day-by-day, and even minute-by-minute, foundation over months. One necessary online element involved a sweepstakes to carry five followers to the movie’s North Carolina set. Notably, Lionsgate invited no reporters: The studio did not need customers thinking this was one other occasion of Hollywood making an attempt to force-feed them a movie by way of skilled filters.

“People was O.Okay. ” Ms. DePalma mentioned. Final summer time, the Lionsgate crew, including Nina Jacobson, a producer, and Joe Drake, then the studio’s top film government, began debating tips on how to handle the movie’s subject. The usual move would have been to exploit imagery from the games in Tv commercials. How else would men particularly get excited about the movie?

But Mr. Palen was apprehensive. “This guide is on junior high studying lists, however kids killing children, though it’s dealt with delicately within the film, is a possible perception downside in marketing,” he stated. One morning, he floated a radical concept: what about by no means exhibiting the games in any respect within the marketing campaign?