'Hunger Games' TV Rights Picked up by ABC Family
ABC Family has scooped up the television rights to the much anticipated "The Hunger Games" film.
"The Hunger Games" is set to make its debut in U.S. theaters on March 23, but ABC Family will have to wait 30 months after the film's release to air it on its network.
The popular television network was founded in 1977 as an extension of Pat Robertson's Christian Television Ministry. In the past, ABC Family also purchased the television rights to the two-part "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows," which came out in 2010 and 2011.
Get Our Latest News for FREE
"The Hunger Games," premiered in Los Angeles Monday evening at a star-studded event. Actors Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson, and Liam Hemsworth were all on hand to watch the premier of their highly anticipated film.
The film has already beat out another series of teen novels turned into movies, "The Twilight Saga: Eclipse," in presale tickets.
The film is based off the book series The Hunger Games, which is a young adult science-fiction novel written by author Suzanne Collins. The book was first published in 2006 and has sold over 800,000 copies. It has landed on The New York Times Best Sellers List 100 times.
The book is set in the future of North America in a country called Panem, which is ruled by a totalitarian regime. Panem has 12 districts, but the center of the country is the ruling city called Capitol, where the wealth, power, and leadership are centered.
According to the novel, which many critics view as a social commentary on American infatuation with reality television and conflict, the Hunger Games was established decades ago when people in the outlying districts rebelled against the city of Capitol. As punishment, the city developed an annual fight each year where a boy and a girl from each of its 12 districts must fight to the death on live television.
