The Hunger Games By the time the film adaptation of "The Hunger Games" was released in 2012, the publisher had reported over 26 million "Hunger Games" trilogy books in print, including movie tie-in books. "The Hunger Games" universe is a dystopia set in Panem, a country consisting of the wealthy Capitol and 12 districts in varying states of poverty. Every year, children from the districts are selected to participate in a compulsory televised battle royale death match called The Hunger Games. The novels were all well received. In August 2012, the series ranked second, exceeded only by the "Harry Potter" series in NPR's
The Hunger Games (film) "The Evening Standard" stated that "The Hunger Games" "is well cast and pretty well acted, certainly when compared with "Harry Potter" juvenile leads". Roger Ebert of the "Chicago Sun-Times" gave the film three stars out of four, praising the movie as "effective entertainment" and Lawrence's performance. Despite being a largely positive review, he criticized the film for being too long and noted that the film misses opportunities for social criticism. Simon Reynolds of Digital Spy gave the film four stars out of five, calling it "enthralling from beginning to end, science fiction that has depth and intelligence to match its