The Hunger Games: Catching Fire is a 2013 American dystopian action film directed by Francis Lawrence from a screenplay by Simon Beaufoy and Michael deBruyn, based on the 2009 novel Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins. The sequel to The Hunger Games (2012), is the second installment in The Hunger Games film series. The film stars Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson, Liam Hemsworth, Woody Harrelson, Elizabeth Banks, Lenny Kravitz, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Jeffrey Wright, Stanley Tucci, and Donald Sutherland. In the film, Katniss Everdeen (Lawrence) and Peeta Mellark (Hutcherson) become targets of the Capitol after their victory in the Games inspires uprisings in Panem.
Lionsgate announced a sequel film based on Collins’ second Hunger Games novel in 2012, with Gary Ross initially set to return as director; Ross was replaced with Lawrence that May, while deBruyn completed several rewrites to Beaufoy’s screenplay. The main cast was confirmed by September 2012 and principal photography began later that month, lasting until March 2013. Filming locations included Georgia, Hawaii, and New Jersey.
The Hunger Games: Catching Fire premiered at the Odeon Leicester Square in London on November 11, 2013, and was released in the United States on November 22, by Lionsgate. The film received positive reviews from critics, with praise for Lawrence’s performance, its themes, action sequences, musical score, screenplay, visual effects, and emotional depth; it is considered the best film in the series. It grossed $865 million, setting the then-records for the biggest November opening weekend and the biggest Thanksgiving period box-office totals; it is the highest-grossing Lionsgate and The Hunger Games film, the fifth-highest-grossing film of 2013, and the highest-grossing film featuring a female lead since The Exorcist (1973).
Among its accolades, the film was nominated for the Broadcast Film Critics Association Award for Best Action Film and a Saturn Award for Best Science Fiction Film. For her performance, Lawrence was nominated for the Empire Award, Broadcast Film Critics Association Award, and Saturn Award for Best Actress. The soundtrack’s lead single, “Atlas” by Coldplay, was nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Song Written for Visual Media and for the Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song.
The film was followed by The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1 in 2014.
