'The Hunger Games' Is the New 'Lord of the Flies'

Now that the hoopla around the Oscars is settling down, Hollywood is getting ready for its next big spectacular—the March 23 opening of The Hunger Games. If you haven’t heard of the movie yet, you will. It’s based on the book by the same name, with 23.5 million copies in print in the U.S. When tickets went on sale on Feb. 22, the movie set the record for first-day advance sales on Fandango, edging out Twilight. The movie’s official Twitter feed has more than 17,000 followers.

It’s safe to say that most of those ticket buyers and Twitter followers are teens and tweens. But there are probably a sprinkling of stock analysts in there, too. David Joyce, an analyst with Miller Tabak, has upgraded the stock of Lionsgate, the studio that made the movie, to “buy.” “We think investor enthusiasm for the late-March theatrical release of The Hunger Games, which could generate more than $170 million at the North American box office, should help the shares,” he told the Hollywood Reporter. (Lionsgate is on a bit of a roll lately; its stock was at $8.71 a share on Jan. 12, the day before it announced an acquisition of Summit Entertainment, of Twilight fame, and traded at $13.79 on March 1.)