The good news? The Hunger Games made $155 million at the box
office its opening weekend, making it the third-best debut in North
American box office history. The bad news, however, reflects a level of
idiocy that we weren’t really expecting.
As CNN reports, “Only Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 and The Dark Knight
— both sequels, with the strength of a franchise behind each — recorded
bigger opening weekends.” Plus, unlike those two flicks, Hunger Games was written by a woman and
stars a woman (much as we love JK Rowling, her series isn’t named after
Hermione) — making it a true lady-centric blockbuster franchise.
Now as you may know, Katniss, the main character in the book and
film, was described as having “straight black hair” and “olive skin.”
It’s a post-apocalyptic world, so she could be a mix of things, but some
pictured a Native American. Blonde-haired, blue-eyed Jennifer Lawrence
won the part and dyed her hair dark.
But when it came to the casting of Rue, Thresh, and Cinna, many
audience members did not understand why there were black actors playing
those parts. Cinna’s skin is not discussed in the book, so truthfully,
though Lenny Kravitz was cast, a white, Asian or Latino actor could have
played the part.
