EXCLUSIVE: Lionsgate scored its second biggest trailer launch in the studio’s history — in the same month, by the way — with its The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping teaser, which drew 109 million global views in its first 24 hours after debuting Thursday.
The prequel, based on the Suzanne Collins novel that hit book shelves in March via Scholastic, doesn’t hit theaters until next year at this time, November 20, 2026.
The teaser drop for the Hunger Games prequel follows Lionsgate’s record-shattering Michael teaser launch, which clocked 116M views in its first 24 hours after dropping November 6. That trailer is now up to about 300 million global views and also ranks as the most-viewed trailer for any music biopic ever.
The teaser drop for Sunrise on the Reaping comes in the wake of The Hunger Games: On Stage opening in London in a further extension of the franchise by Lionsgate.
In addition to all the eyeballs for Sunrise on the Reaping over the past day, Lionsgate is also seeing strong demand for The Hunger Games franchise on Apple TV; the studio launched a Hunger Games EST bundle promotion with the streamer that reached No. 1 on Apple’s Top Charts last night.
The Hunger Games franchise encompasses five novels that have sold more than 100 million copies worldwide and been translated into 52 languages, as well as the blockbuster film franchise that has grossed more than $3.4 billion at the global box office spanning five movies. Sunrise on the Reaping sold over 1.5 million copies worldwide in its first week, marking the biggest debut for any title in Collins’ Hunger Games book series. In the U.S. alone, the book sold 1.2 million copies, more than twice the opening sales of The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes and over three times that of Mockingjay.
Francis Lawrence, who began directing the Hunger Games movies starting with the second title, 2013’s Catching Fire, and has continued through to the Mockingjay movies (2014 and 2015) and the prequel The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes (2023), returns to helm Sunrise of the Reaping. Oscar nominated screenwriter Billy Ray adapted. Returning franchise producers are Lawrence, Nina Jacobson and Brad Simpson.
The pic stars Joseph Zada, Jesse Plemons, Ralph Fiennes, Glenn Close, Kieran Culkin, Elle Fanning, Mckenna Grace, Maya Hawke, Whitney Peak and Kelvin Harrison Jr. The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping revisits the world of Panem 24 years before the events of The Hunger Games, starting on the morning of the reaping of the 50th Hunger Games, also known as the Second Quarter Quell.
