What's Going On With The Rights To The Hunger Games?

So one of the stories out of the Cannes Marketplace was that there was a particularly robust bidding war over the international distribution rights to Sunrise on the Reaping. This makes sense as some of the tried-and-true titles and franchises have not pulled money as consistently while The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes was a solid earner for Lionsgate two years ago.

What's interesting is that what originated as a bidding war over international distribution rights has evolved into a rumored worldwide distribution deal with major studios like Sony and Amazon in the mix. Details of the deal are not public knowledge, and I have not seen any reports that allege what these terms are, but typically an arrangement like this would include the distributor getting some say in the production in exchange for the financial considerations.

The fact that Amazon and Sony are the two studios leading the charge makes a lot of sense. Sony has not had much of any success in the last decade when it comes to maintaining their major IP theatrically. Their biggest success comes from their co-production deal with Marvel Studios for the live-action Spider-Man movies and the animated Spider-Verse films, but outside of that they haven't been able to sustain a big-earning franchise with the demise of things like Men In Black, the Sony Universe of Marvel Characters (outside Venom, which is presumably finished), and Ghostbusters. Amazon on the other hand has tried large-budget streaming series with Wheel of Time, The Boys, Invincible, Rings of Power, and The Peripheral but a good amount of these are coming to an end. Amazon Studios/MGM does have the rights to the James Bond franchise but we are still a few years out from that and The Accountant is not going to maintain profitability for that studio.

That said, neither of these studios is one I would want to maintain The Hunger Games. While Amazon would likely lead to consistency in streaming after the theatrical run. I don't want a studio operating as a subsidiary of a company owned by Jeff Bezos responsible for telling stories about the overthrow of an authoritarian dystopian society. I also don't trust the executives at Sony to make good decisions, with the evidence being the last 15 years of theatrical film releases.

There are two studios not in the mix that should realistically make a play on the franchise. Netflix has been trying to expand their big-budget theatrical offerings with Knives Out and The Chronicles of Narnia so The Hunger Games would fit into that portfolio nicely. Similarly, A24 is looking to expand their large-budget filmmaking so a co-production with Lionsgate would make a lot of sense for them, especially if this is simply a distribution deal and they want to let Francis Lawrence do his thing.

Let's keep an eye on this to see how it plays out.