It looks like I’ll need to dust off my Hunger Games DVDs (well, 4K Blu-rays) next month as it’s been confirmed that the four mainline "The Hunger Games" movies will be leaving Netflix U.S. very soon — but you’ve still got time to get a marathon watching session before then.
On Friday, May 31, “The Hunger Games”, “The Hunger Games: Catching Fire”, “The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 1” and “The Hunger Games” Mockingjay - Part 2” will all be removed from the Netflix library. That gives you two weeks (at the time of writing) to watch this quartet of sci-fi dystopian movies, and you should make time.
What is "The Hunger Games" about?
If you missed the whole Hunger Games fad that swept the mid-2010s, the movies are based on a trilogy of novels by author Suzanne Collins and set in a bleak vision of the future where the ruins of North America have become Panem, a nation split into 12 districts and ruined over by the Capitol.
Each year, as punishment for a failed uprising, the Capitol forces each district to set two tributes, a boy and a girl, to compete in a tournament called The Hunger Games that sees the contestants thrown into an arena and forced to fight to the death.
The series opens on the morning of the reaping (the ceremony where tributes are chosen) for the 74th annual Hunger Games, where Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence) is forced to volunteer after her younger sister is selected. Katniss comes from District 12, the most impoverished district in Panem, but while the odds aren’t in her favor, she’s a fighter and is determined to emerge from the games victorious.
The movie series also features Josh Hutcherson as Peeta, the male tribute from District 12, and Liam Hemsworth as Gale, Katniss’s closest friend. Woody Harrelson plays Haymitch, a previous victor now mentor, and Elizabeth Banks plays Effie Trinket, a chaperone for the tributes. And those are just some of the impressive actors featured across the series.
"The Hunger Games" is a brilliant blockbuster franchise
All four movies were generally well received, with Catching Fire considered the franchise’s high point (it holds an impressive 90% on Rotten Tomatoes), and even the controversial decision to split the novel “Mockingjay” in two is less of an issue when you can watch them back-to-back as essential one complete mega-sized movie rather than two separate parts.
The franchise's most recent entry is a prequel, “The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes” and hit theaters last year, and arrived on streaming platforms a couple of months ago. It’s not currently available on Netflix but can be watched via Starz.
Whether you’ve watched “The Hunger Games” already, or are fresh to Katniss’ journey, these blockbuster movies are well worth catching before they leave Netflix (for now at least, the streamer loves recycling its library, so they may return in the future).
There’s no word yet on whether they will be moving to another streaming service shortly, but if you want regular access to the whole series, the full collection is currently on sale for $29 on Amazon. Or fans of physical media can get a Blu-ray box set of the first four movies in the franchise for just $13 at Amazon (was $34).
"The Hunger Games" movies are streaming on Netflix U.S. until Friday, May 31.
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