Corona | Coming Attractions

When the first film in a book trilogy makes over $400 million dollars at the domestic box office, it's pretty much a given that the mechanics of business will push for a way to make the screen story a quartet of films. We've already seen the fourth and final book of Stephanie Meyer's Twilight series, Breaking Dawn, split into two movies. Now the same studio behind the popular vampire love story is splitting the final tale in their Hunger Games film franchise into two movies.

Lionsgate announced today that The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1 will come out November 21, 2014. Then, nearly one year later to the day The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2 will arrive on November 20, 2015.

I don't think that there will be much complaining over this decision. Everyone will nearly certainly come out as a winner: the fans of Hunger Games get another two hours of screen time to see their heroes; the actors and creative talent earn another paycheck; and Lionsgate will very likely see their new teen franchise earn another half-a-billion dollars from getting a second film out of the Mockingjay material.

Filming on Catching Fire, the second Hunger Games book, gets underway this September for a November 22, 2013 release. Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson, Liam Hemsworth, Lenny Kravitz, Elizabeth Banks, Stanley Tucci, Donald Sutherland, Toby Jones and Woody Harrelson all are slated to come back and replay their roles. Newly announced additions to the franchise include Jena Malone and Philip Seymour Hoffman.