Sit down, The Twilight Saga. Take a backseat, Harry Potter. There’s a new, early box office champion in Hollywood! According to Fandango, The Hunger Games has set a new mark for first-day advance ticket sales, as anxious Katniss Everdeen fans lit up the Internet on February 22 in anticipation of this blockbuster and purchased more tickets ahead of the film’s opening than the previous record holder, Eclipse . Said Fandango Executive Vice President and General Manager, Rick Butler: ” The Hunger Games is off to a fantastic start. We saw the biggest first day advance ticketing sales in our company’s nearly 12-year history – which is especially impressive for a March release and a non-sequel.” The Hunger Games TV Spot NOTE : Do you want to attend the March 12 Los Angeles premiere of The Hunger Games ? It’s not too late to enter that contest at Movie Fanatic !
In this week’s Hobnobbing, we plan your Panem-themed Academy Awards fete. By Amy Wilkinson Jennifer Lawrence in “The Hunger Games” Photo: Lionsgate Well, the 84th annual Academy Awards are right around the corner, and though ” Hunger Games ” fans have another year to wait until the big-screen adaptation of Suzanne Collins’ teen novel is awards-eligible (we’ve got you in our crosshairs, Best Picture nomination !), that doesn’t mean we can’t celebrate in revolutionary style. And we’re making it super easy for you hungry film buffs out there. We’ve carefully composed a step-by-step guide to throwing your very own “Hunger Games”-themed Oscars party. Dig in! Reap Your Attendees Just like Panem’s most prestigious event, you can’t let the entire dystopian nation into your Oscars get-together. Write each of your friends’ names down on a slip of paper, drop them into a bowl and select only 24 pals to enjoy your bean dip and Billy Crystal-shaped Jell-O mold. They’ll thank you for it in the end. Set Up a Groom Room Tributes — I mean, guests — can’t even think of setting foot into the arena of your living room without first dividing their unibrows and conquering their hairy gams. Clear a common space (who needs privacy?) for your pals to primp and polish (sans Cinna and company, unfortunately) before the opening ceremonies. Stock generously with Capitol Colours nail polish . Let the Games Begin! OK, full disclosure: This isn’t so much a party as it is a cinephilic death match — only one guest can survive. Print Oscar ballots for each attendee (our friends at NextMovie have a handy, downloadable version) and be sure they fill out every category. Eliminate each incorrect guest, ushering them out of your home one by one (anthem optional) until you’re left with a single, exhausted winner. Cue the Parade Six months later (August 26, to be exact), you’ll want to invite the winner back to your house or apartment for their victory tour. Knock on each of your neighbors’ doors (starting with the highest number) and request they throw you a huge celebratory feast. Gratis. Your Hobnobbing Gamemakers guarantee this will be one party Panem will be talking about for years to come! May the Oscars be ever in your favor! Will you be throwing a “Hunger Games”-themed Oscars party? Sound off in the comments below and tweet me @amymwilk with your thoughts and suggestions for future columns! Check out everything we’ve got on “The Hunger Games.” For young Hollywood news, fashion and “Twilight” updates around the clock, visit HollywoodCrush.MTV.com . Related Videos MTV Rough Cut: ‘Hunger Games’ Related Photos The Hunger Games
I love how full of shit Jennifer Aniston is in this speech she is giving at the Hollywood walk of fame…saying shit like “I can’t explain how surreal this is….” talking about how honored she is….when bitch was nominated amongst 200 people, probably mainly by herself, and had to buy the fucking thing and agree to make a public appearance for the thing, in what is pretty much the weirdest Trophy if it was anywhere else, but in Hollywood, these self indulgent cunts love being praised and celebrating themselves so it totally makes sense and reminds us just how vapid this cunt and ever cunt she surrounds herself with is…..It’s like if I bought myself a trophy that said “best human ever” and paid some downtown location rent to put it on fucking display so that everytime people walk by they think – shit that guy’s the best human ever….only in my case, my trophy wouldn’t be surrounded by hundreds of other cunts just as self involved as me…. Highlight of the speech “I’ve walked the streets of Hollywood Blvd for years” unfortunately, she caught on that she was calling herself out as a whore…
I hope I don’t get sued by Lovecat #4 because I’ve already posted: THIS DUTCH BITCH’S ASS and THAT CANADIAN BITCH’S NIPPLE from the issue. Here are Aurelie Claudel, Bekah Jenkins, Claudia Mason, Fanny François, Le Call, Tehlia and Elie Ross….I don’t know who is who there are too many vaginas to keep track of….but I know some of them are showing nipple and nipple is a good thing….especially for hungry babies looking for dinner…and by hungry babies I mean perverts. I know these are up and coming models and I appreciate their willingness to get naked for press…..and fame and fortune in efforts to make it as models….even if they are all making the same stupid facial expression…
In the grand tradition of the late, great Robert Opel : “It’s long been rumored that Opel’s streak across the screen was not necessarily a unilateral act of transgression by Opel, and that he may have had a co-conspirator or two. The facts that he gained access to the backstage area in order to stage the streaking, and that he was given a post-show press conference, give rise to the suspicion that the event was set-up by the producers of the broadcast, maybe to give the long-venerated institution a little jolt.” [ The Awl ]
Next month brings the launch of The Hunger Games , one of the most-anticipated releases of the 2012 calendar and the first installment of a hopeful franchise based on Suzanne Collins’s bestselling young-adult adventure trilogy. In selling their film, studio execs at Lionsgate have ramped up all manner of marketing to immerse fans in the experience — and, in doing so, have made the least-populated jursdiction on the planet a financial beneficiary. The Hunger Games series features teenaged heroine Katniss Everdeen and concerns a North America remade into a dystopian dictatorship, renamed Panem and ruled by the governing body called The Capitol. As Lionsgate has expanded its promotional campaign, a wide array of affiliated websites has sprung up in an effort to make Panem as real as possible, many of those bearing obscure web addresses (e.g. www.Capitol.pn) to imply that the sites originate in the nation depicted in the film. This unique designation is not a studio fabrication, however. The .pn modifier is the domain offered up by the very real government of the Pitcairn Islands, a collection of four land masses comprising 18 square miles in the middle of the southern Pacific Ocean. This British territory rests over a thousand miles west of Easter Island and just as far east of Tahiti. So how did Pitcairn, with barely over 50 residents and intermittent electrical services, become the Internet home of a major Hollywood franchise? “It’s a happy coincidence,” Bill Haigh, governmental registrar for the island’s domain offices, told me in an e-mail correspondence. “Lionsgate have found .pn useful to them, and it has been helpful for bringing benefit to the island.” As the movie studio looked into creating an online presence for the film’s fictional nation, a functional domain was already in place. The Pitcairn government offers up these domains primarily for corporations to establish and/or protect their brand, and Haigh explained that the proceeds go a long way toward the islands’ infrastructural upkeep. “The sale of domain names is of great benefit to the 50 or so inhabitants of Pitcairn Island,” he said, “because revenue thus gathered is used to bring modern telecommunications to this extremely remote spot on the globe via satellite. This is quite an expensive process. And it is not only for telecommunications but generally for supply shipping, children’s education, medical care etc.” The result is that The Hunger Games has become a boon for this tiny territory, one that lacks a movie theater and receives but two cable channels — CNN and Turner Classic Movies. While Haigh declined to divulge the number of Web addresses purchased by the studio (Lionsgate reps did not respond to requests for comment), he did direct me to an online registry where one can inquire about the availability and ownership of various selections. Along with already established Capitol.pn, and CapitolCouture.pn, there are registrations for Panem’s various districts (District1.pn, through District13.pn), and each of the main characters have their own addresses (e.g. PresidentSnow.pn). Ultimately it’s impossible to deduce exactly how many Hunger Games characters, phrases and permutations thereof have staked a .pn claim. After browsing the registry for a while, however, it seems safe to assume that Lionsgate may have vastly more addresses collected than there are Pitcairn residents. And based on the fee of $100 NZ (appx. $75 US) per registered address, Hunger brings in revenues well into the thousands of dollars — a tidy supplement to the islands’ steady tourism business. As geographically remote as the Pitcairn Islands are, this Hunger Games dalliance does not make for their sole involvement with Hollywood. Most of the surnames found on the island are shared by characters from the oft-adapted novel Mutiny on The Bounty ; the book and numerous films are based on historical events that occurred on and around Pitcairn. For this reason cruise ships are a common sight in Bounty Bay, where visitors will find the outpost isle’s own capitol. However, as much of a windfall as Hunger Games may prove for the islands, it is doubtful “Everdeen” will appear anytime soon in the area phone books. Read Movieline’s full Hunger Games coverage here . Brad Slager has written about movies and entertainment for Film Threat, Mediaite, and is a columnist at CHUD.com . His less insightful impressions on entertainment can be found on Twitter .
Joseph Kahn’s Detention had me from its first knowingly self-aware trailer, and while word out of SXSW was polarizing — a love it or hate it kind of deal, by many accounts — it’s one of my more anticipated films of the spring. True, the competition this season isn’t too stiff, but still! Watch Josh Hutcherson (of next months The Hunger Games , perhaps you’ve heard of it?) as a cute hipster kid get ready to take a beating from the school tough guy while an actual killer runs rampant through town and tell me this isn’t worth putting on the calendar for April. Here’s the film’s full trailer, to give you a sense of what we’re in for. Admittedly, the nonstop pop culture references schtick has been almost fully exhausted by now but good, clever high school comedies never get old. Call it Not Another Not Another Teen Movie , if you will/must. Adding to the intrigue: Detention was shot half a year before Hutcherson was cast as Peeta in The Hunger Games , so the timing of release here is obvious. Will Hunger Games fans flock to the R-rated horror comedy to see a new side of Hutcherson in what may be the edgiest/darkest/ballsiest project since he graduated from family flicks? Detention will be released in select theaters on April 13. [via Badass Digest ]
March mall tour including Jennifer Lawrence, Liam Hemsworth and Josh Hutcherson announced as advance tickets for flick go on sale. By Jocelyn Vena Josh Hutcherson and Jennifer Lawrence Photo: MTV News With “The Hunger Games” just four weeks away from hitting theaters, the cast will embark on a mall tour starting next month. Jennifer Lawrence, Liam Hemsworth and Josh Hutcherson all will make the rounds during the trek, kicking off March 3. The tour will hit eight cities over the course of a week with stops in Atlanta, Dallas and Los Angeles. In addition to meet and greets with the big three and other castmembers from the highly anticipated flick, the mall stops will include Q&A sessions and giveaways. The first stop, March 3 at the City of Angels’ Westfield Century City, will feature director Gary Ross as well as Lawrence, Hutcherson and Hemsworth. March 6 at the JW Marriott Atlanta Buckhead in Atlanta, Hemsworth will be joined by Leven Rambin, Dayo Okeniyi, Amandla Stenberg and Jack Quaid. There will be two stops March 7: Hemsworth, Rambin, Okeniyi and Quaid will appear at Scottsdale Fashion Square in Scottsdale, Arizona, while the Westfield Fox Valley in Aurora, Illinois, will host Hutcherson, Isabelle Fuhrman and Jacqueline Emerson. The following day, March 8, Lawrence, Alexander Ludwig and Stenberg are scheduled for the Westfield Broward Mall in Plantation, Florida, and Hutcherson, Fuhrman and Emerson will be on hand at Galleria Dallas. Lawrence, Ludwig, Stenberg, Hutcherson, Fuhrman and Emerson will greet fans March 9 at the Mall of America in Bloomington, Minnesota. The final stop, March 10 at Seattle’s University Village, will feature all three of the film’s top stars: Lawrence, Hemsworth and Hutcherson. In addition to the announcement of the mall tour, Wednesday (February 22) marks the first day fans can buy advance tickets to the flick, which opens March 23. Check out everything we’ve got on “The Hunger Games.” For breaking news, celebrity columns, humor and more — updated around the clock — visit MTVMoviesBlog.com . Related Videos MTV Rough Cut: Jennifer Lawrence And Josh Hutcherson MTV Rough Cut: ‘Hunger Games’ Related Photos The Hunger Games
This week’s Hobnobbing celebrates Seneca Crane’s beard, Peeta’s advice and more Web wonders. By Amy Wilkinson Wes Bentley as Seneca Crane in “The Hunger Games” Photo: Lionsgate Three years can feel like an eternity. That’s how long ” The Hunger Games ” fans will have sat around sharpening their arrows between Lionsgate purchasing the film rights to Suzanne Collins’ novel and the movie ultimately swooping into theaters March 23. But it’s also been a productive 36 or so months for the series’ acolytes, evidenced by the plethora of Panem-centric memes that have cropped up online to amuse, inform and enthrall. From Seneca Crane’s beard to Katniss’ orange backpack, let’s celebrate the things that have made this infernal wait a little less painful. (Special thanks to Twitter friends who sent in their recommendations.) Seneca Crane’s beard Wes Bentley’s flame-shaped fuzz was destined for Internet infamy. Following the debut of “The Hunger Games” full-length trailer, the stylized scruff seemed to be one of the hottest topics of conversation. A Facebook page (and insightful interview with Hollywood Crush ) followed, proving the beard had staying power — even if it didn’t stay on Bentley’s face forever. “I would have loved to have kept the beard, but that beard took two hours to groom every day,” he told MTV News. “It’s such a cool look. Ve Neill, the makeup designer, did such an amazing job. It’s exciting that it’s getting that kind of attention.” Advice Peeta Peeta is the wisest baker’s son we know. Need proof? Take a gander at Advice Peeta , recommended by @TheHobOrg, where the disembodied head of Josh Hutcherson dispenses pithy platitudes and nuggets of wisdom. “Remember who the real enemy is: Panera,” one reads, while another declares, “I set fireeeeeee to the bread.” Aw, Peeta’s an Adele fan! We knew it. Lord Buttercup District 12’s male tribute isn’t the only character pontificating online. Even Prim’s mangy tomcat is getting in on the action. Similarly styled to Advice Peeta, Lord Buttercup , recommended by @mirandahakim, has plenty to say too, like “I am the Mockingjay. LOL JK I’m a cat.” The busy feline also manages his own Twitter account, @LordButtercup. Because the revolution needs social-media-minded mongrels. Effie’s shoes One of the newer (and perhaps less prevalent) memes, recommended by @HGgirlonfire, is a foot fetishist’s best friend. Effie Trinket’s gold booties (supposedly fashioned after an Alexander McQueen design ) made their debut on the recently launched Capitol Couture . And our shoe envy will never be the same. Katniss’ orange backpack Clearly, “Hunger Games” fans are a fashion-conscious bunch, because when the first “Hunger Games” teaser debuted, and it appeared Katniss’ bright backpack had been replaced by a duller version, die-hards were not pleased. Thankfully, further peeks have confirmed that the fiery bag, which Katniss grabs at the beginning of the Games, is indeed a player. And, as recommended by @pikko, it continues to be celebrated on Facebook . What’s your favorite “Hunger Games” meme? Sound off in the comments below and tweet me @amymwilk with your thoughts and suggestions for future columns! Check out everything we’ve got on “The Hunger Games.” For young Hollywood news, fashion and “Twilight” updates around the clock, visit HollywoodCrush.MTV.com . Related Videos MTV Rough Cut: ‘Hunger Games’ Related Photos The Hunger Games
‘I loved this show so much … that I didn’t necessarily want to put it down,’ she tells MTV News of taking the tour to Australia and New Zealand. By Jocelyn Vena, with reporting by Sway Calloway Taylor Swift Photo: Getty Images Taylor Swift will launch the next leg of her highly successful Speak Now Tour next month, and she’s excited by all the possibilities the trek will bring this time around. “We’re going to Australia and New Zealand, because we are never done touring,” she joked to MTV News during “MTV First: Taylor Swift,” when she premiered her new video for the “Hunger Games” track “Safe & Sound.” “I’m really excited about going back to Australia and New Zealand because, well, New Zealand, it’s the first time I’ve ever been there, and the Australian fans have been so good to me,” she continued. “And this will be my third time going back there. I loved this show so much, the Speak Now Tour, that I didn’t necessarily want to put it down. I hope they like it. I love going there. It’s always really wonderful. The people are so nice.” The last time she hit the road, she was joined by a laundry list of A-listers, including T.I. , Flo Rida, Usher and Paramore leading lady Hayley Williams, to name a few. And she still can’t believe all those people agreed to perform with her. “It’s been crazy. Between all the guest artists that have come out and come onstage and surprised the audience, that was, I think, my favorite part of touring this year, because the audience never knew what they were going to get,” she said. “And I loved that experience, and even walking around L.A., people come up to me, these girls will come up to me [like] ‘I was at the Staples show where Justin Bieber came out’ [or] ‘I was at the one where Ellen and Nicki Minaj came out,’ and it’s just really fun, because you start to realize that concert meant something to them, and that’s nice.” Not only did all those famous faces perform with Swift, but she also had one of the top-grossing tours of the year . “That’s the fans doing that,” she said. “I’m kind of blown away by that.” Did you check out the Speak Now Tour? Share your reviews in the comments! Related Videos MTV First: Taylor Swift Related Artists Taylor Swift
