If the midnight showings for The Hunger Games are any indication of how successful this movie is going to be then the odds should be in the movies’ favor.
I live in a small town with around 4000 residents, an old fashioned Main Street and a single-screen movie theater. Usually we get movies two weeks after the release date and less than 20 people might attend a weeknight show but even my little theater is showing The Hunger Games this weekend and the fun got started with a midnight show. In the interest of writing this blog post As a fan of the books, I had to see what a midnight showing at my local theater would look like so some friends and I headed for Main Street at 11:00 last night.
I saw something that I’ve never seen in town before – a crowd of people standing in a line! There were more people waiting to get into the movie theater than usually go to this theater in an entire week. Inside, the theater was hopping with activity, which I bet it hasn’t seen since the first “Talkie” premiered last millennium. The audience was mostly teens and their parents and everybody was having a blast and excited about seeing the movie.
You could tell the audience was made up of people who had read the book because watching the movie with them was like being part of a giant inside joke or a “you had to be there” story. Everyone grumbled at how the Mockingjay pin was introduced, hooted when characters made their first appearance and raised their hands to salute District 12 – it was great! I was a little disappointed that kids weren’t wearing costumes–If I was 13, I would have rocked some District 12 miner’s garb–but overall everyone was really into it and having fun.