Comic Con: No Lionsgate Panels for ‘Hunger Games’ or ‘Divergent’
Comic Con is fast approaching, and big studios and brands like Marvel and Star Wars will be making appearances at panels and presentations in San Diego. But there is an interesting lack of a couple of big names this year: Disney and Pixar (albeit they will be at the D23 conference coming up soon and that may make up for it) and Lions Gate. Though Marvel and SW, as mentioned, will be represented, it will be under their own terms – for example, Star Wars will be unveiling games, but there will likely be a lack of a video message from J.J. Abrams for example.
The big news here is that The Hunger Games and the Divergent series won’t have a presence at the Con – this following a prominent panel last year for Catching Fire (see video below). There may be a variety of reasons for this, but it would be easy to posit a logical reason: franchises like Hunger Games, especially after two films that have grosses of 1.5 BILLION dollars worldwide, and Divergent has a fanbase that is poised to grow. Another logical note is that the filmmakers are busy finishing up Mockingjay part 1 and part 2 are presumably still filming or involving post-productions.
The other factor is money, to be sure, but also its brother or cousin or what you call it: Hype. Comic-Con in the past has been seen as a great place to build hype, and for a lot of facets of media and pop culture this is still very much the case. But the studios may be getting wise to building up TOO much hype for something that, outside of Comic-Con’s rabid fans, may not have the awareness in the pop culture sphere as elsewhere (Cowboys & Aliens and especially Scott Pilgrim vs the World are two examples of movies that had a huge presence at past cons, and disappointed at the box office).
It also seems interesting this should be the decision for the studio following the news that they would be there – Hunger Games WAS at Cannes back in May, and the announcement on a site like Cinema Blend seems like the studio would use both events to promote (also, it must be noted, Lionsgate will have some presence at the Con for other films, like See No Evil 2 and Lephrachaun: Origins, though they are smaller genre films).
Insurgent symbol from the book
But while for Hunger Games the giant anticipation is already there, Con or not – the makers of Mockingjay part 1 have in the past couple of weeks, and those alone have been seen 10 and 6 millions views on Youtube respectively in a matter of days – the lack of Divergent/upcoming Insergent presence seems a little odder. While the 2014 action/teen pic starring Shailene Woodlsey and Kate Winslet was a hit, especially in the US, it seems odd that Summit (which is an arm now of Lionsgate) wouldn’t have the stars at a panel or possibly show some footage. Logic, again, may say that they are still filming the sequel, which is due for release in a locked in March 20th release.
Gregory Ellwood over at Hitflix had this to ponder: “… there is still room for a number of surprises on this year’s schedule. For example, what Paramount will preview during its Thursday hour is not 100% clear. Warner Bros. has 2 hours allotted to a “Hobbit” panel which means a minimum of an hour for other films that have not been announced. 20th Century Fox has more than enough time in its own 2-hour block to bring out an unexpected guest (or four).”
Devin Faraci at Badass Digest was more direct with what the future portends in the shifts in attention to media, and he’s probably right, except that Disney and Lionsgate have some major films that aren’t showing: “Comic-Con’s focus has been slowly slipping from movies to TV, and I think this is another step in that process. In a few years only a few major films will be showing up, while TV will rule the convention center. The fandoms involved in these shows are even more rabid than those who are into big boy movies, so don’t expect SDCC to become less crowded, just expect the demographics to continue to shift. This has been going on for a while, but I think Lionsgate and Disney sitting out SDCC 2014 could be a real turning point.”
One last factor is, if the filmmakers are not still shooting Part 2 of Mockingjay, the actors involved (especially the over-worked Jennifer Lawrence) may want to just take some time off before moving on to more projects, not to mention the promotion later this fall for part 1 (Lawrence is also attached to a new David O. Russell film).
What do you think? Could they make a surprise appearance and make unsuspecting fans go wild? Comic-Con is known for its super-big-OMG surprise announcements in the past to be sure. Let us know on Twitter @ or in the comments. If you’re going to the Con you can see more specifics about the Lions Gate panels here.
